Dec. 08' - Helene Hugel

Via email, Helene Hugel, discusses her most recent project; Infant Imaginings. Through Infant Imaginings, Helene explored and developed a performing arts work for and with very young children and their parents for use in health care settings. In the following conversation Helene attempts to differentiate between participatory and collaborative practice in relation to her levels of engagement with children and parents and comments on maintaining her role as an arts practitioner in health care settings.

About the Artist

Helene is a puppeteer, clown doctor and arts and health practitioner with a qualification in hospital play. She has been working in this area for six years, in order to nurture and honour children's creativity as a natural resource for their well-being. Helene is presently establishing her own company; Helium is a multi-disciplinary art and health company for children, which will operate nationwide in 2009. As a researcher, developer and innovator of state-of-the-art performing arts in children’s hospitals and other healthcare settings, Helium will strive to break new ground on both an artistic and a clinical level.

About the Project

Infant Imaginings ran two days a week over a four-month period in close association with Tallagh Community Arts Center, a health center, hospital and Community Mother's Programme. The project aimed to encourage curiosity, stimulation, relaxation, and communication and to provide a creative environment to experience well-being for babies and parents, who were invited to take-part in the artistic process. Helene worked with musician Jonathan Wilson to explore the use of puppetry, play, music, movement, and sensory environments to create a performing arts piece.

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Images courtesy of Maria Vesselko