The Storytellers' New Gambit

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Who we are.

Helium is an arts and health, not-for-profit company fostering a culture of creativity within the Irish healthcare system for children and young people, through the production of participatory arts programmes in community, primary, and acute healthcare environments. Our mission is to create positive experiences of hospital and healthcare settings for young people, to support a child-centred model of healthcare through the arts, and to innovate models of creative arts interventions which are high impact in both the health and arts fields. We work with professional artists on projects that range from once-off events to longer-term residencies.

Eléonore Nicolas is a multidisciplinary artist working in painting, sculpture, documentaries and live art performances. Fiona Dowling is a multidisciplinary artist working in painting, mosaics, clowning and storytelling. Both artists have collaborated with Helium as artists working in hospitals throughout Ireland.

Why this project needs your help.

The Storytellers' New Gambit is a storytelling and technology performance project produced by Helium in collaboration with artists Eléonore and Fiona that we aim, with your help, to bring to the paediatric department of a Dublin hospital this spring for a six-month residency. Eléonore and Fiona want to make their performances truly magical for the children and they plan on doing this in two ways: (1) through creating storytellers' costumes with embedded technology so that children can choose stories, music, sound and lighting effects that transport them outside the hospital ward (2) through storytelling props created by the artists which are left with the children enabling them to develop alternative endings to the stories or invent entirely new stories in their own time.

This is where you come in! By funding the storytellers' high-tech costumes and the storytelling props, you will be helping to create a memorable experience for the children and the means by which they can get creative all by themselves.

How the money will be spent.

The money we raise on Fund-it will go directly to the production costs of the project: the technology to build a soundscape and lighting effects into the costumes which will assist in projecting the stories into the wards, a dressmaker and her materials, the making of storytelling props, including a storytelling cube which will enable the children to tell their own stories once the storytellers have left and the artists' fees for design work and rehearsing.

Who this will benefit.

Our mission is to develop new ways in which artists can collaborate with children in the hospital environment, so that children can feel happier during their hospital stay. The Storytellers' New Gambit aims not only to bring an innovative creative outlet to these children but also to encourage the participation of parents, families and staff. The project is also a meaningful platform for the artists to explore, reflect and examine their own artistic process.

'Who could know small things can make you so happy?' - patient aged 9

Many thanks to all who fund us!

Helene Hugel, Artistic Director
Eléonore Nicolas
Fiona Dowling