Head:ON

Head:ON Conversations is a think-tank and space for sector wide discussions to instigate and progress change.

Stuart held the first Head:On Conversations event in collaboration with The Place and One Dance UK in 2019, bringing together arts professionals to reflect, debate and pledge action around mental health and emotional wellbeing in the dance industry.

Stuart subsequently presented at IADMS iConference 2020 on ‘Safeguarding the Mental Health of Artists in a Creative Process’ to continue this debate internationally.

Head:ON Café welcomes artists into an online and/or in-person space with the intention to deepen connection and understanding, safely share experiences and reduce the sense of isolation.

Curated by Stuart, each café event has a guest artist joining Stuart who shares their specific lived experience, inviting reflection of that particular issue.

From a starting point of making autobiographical work safely, the framework Stuart is evolving is transferable across education, community, creation, collaborative and performance contexts.

As such he has led workshops and training for dance students, faculty staff, freelance artists, creative teams and dance companies. This work is being developed in consultation with long-term collaborator Viv Gordon.

Dropping shame and empowering participants within Stuart’s community work is central to his practice.

Drawing on his lived experience and training in ‘Human Givens’ and ‘Transactional Analysis’ he is exploring how therapeutic models can be used as a framework for studio and creative practices within workshops, live events and discussions centralising care.

He has a framework that can translate into cross arts situations through facilitated conversations, reflection with creative exercises that adapt to the participants in the room. Often Stuart will begin with using other art forms, such as drawing and photography, to create a safe space from which movement can emerge.

An important element of this work is finding ways for participants to make a statement whilst choosing how private they want to remain. Self-portrait photographs are particularly successful so participants can decide how much of their identity to reveal. Problem solving, fun, writing and drawing is used as a way to support reflection, safety , inclusivity, connection and empowerment.

This approach suits all community settings, but particular works well when working with vulnerable adults and people with mental health needs, experience of homelessness, HIV, Chemsex and addiction.

Head:ON:Inside is an exciting artistic collaboration between Stuart, videographer Rosie Powell, and invited artists with the ambition to create a film series building on Stuart’s safe practice where empowerment is key.

One of the aims of ROCKBOTTOM was to initiate and create conversation around mental health and identity. Stuart and Rosie created the films based on the individual’s responses to questions and choices, enabling the guest to feel comfortable about what part of them they want to share, and to choose how they want to share it.

The films are a collaboration, an enquiry, and a gift.

The Head:On:Inside films are a beautiful collection of how people see themselves and how they feel others see them. Versions of mental health stories that are held by their narratives of identity and their life experiences. They’re a celebration of difference and a statement of defiance.