Arts & Culture
fourth wall – art, community and mental wellbeing
Sarah Lloyd, formerly Carpenter, creator and curator of Fourth Wall, started working in art linked to mental health after her own experience of mental illness in 2015. Everyone knows how art can be used therapeutically, yet Sarah wanted to work in a different way. She started to work with psychiatrists, researchers, clinicians and others to make systemic changes in mental health practice through art. Her work has been funded by the Wellcome Trust and with the involvement of artists, industry specialists and lawyers her projects have produce legislation change in delivery of mental health support. She and her husband moved to Folkestone and a back room at home wasn’t sufficient for her needs so Sarah became a Creative Quarter tenant. Folkelife met her at her studio/gallery on The Old High Street to learn more.
open dialogue
“Being based at home made me think about my practice and what’s important to me. I was quite used to talking about my work, and being tucked away at home or in my first studio in Folkestone meant I couldn’t do that. I realised that the work doesn’t have to be good, or bad, but in talking it opens up dialogue. So I needed a window. I needed to be able to break that Fourth Wall, as they say in theatre, and reach out to speak to people about what I do.
“Now I am down in Kent I have reached out to new partners and work a lot with the University of Kent. They have very good public advisory groups. With my work associated with the Maudsley and Bethlem in London, I have become, not only a patient, but now a public involvement advisor in research. This has lead to me being involved with NIHR – the National Institute for Health and Care Research. I now get the chance to bang on about how creative processes open up dialogue to anyone who will listen, and across the UK.”





what cost folkestone?
“Last year we did a project where we were trained by NHS England to be Community Researchers. It was called ‘What Cost Folkestone?’ and we were looking at the cost of living and mental wellbeing in Folkestone. We did creative activities and engaged over 1000 people, whereas other groups in the project only spoke to about 12 people. So they thought that this was a good method to use. We can interact with people who are hard to reach. In 2025, we’re going to be recreating this with a different topic – social care. Now, that’s a topic that I don’t have much experience in, so this is a whole new ball game for me.
“I’m not alone though. Many people are not aware of what care is available, and then there are other issues to consider. I ran a project called ‘Sick Of It’ here which was about women’s health and diet culture. A lady called Penny came along who leads a group called ‘Ageing Without Children’ in Hythe. She brought up the issue of Power Of Attorney and who has autonomy when that older person can no longer make decisions. If your children are in Australia, or you don’t have children, who plays that role? At what point do you put those documents in place. What if you do have a child but you don’t have any contact?”
community dilemma
“This becomes a cross-generational conversation because there are lots of examples of people not having children, maybe they’re not able to, or have decided not to. But at some point, this discussion needs to be had. What if you’re in a position where you are estranged from your family because of child-loss or through having to give up children? It’s something where we’re all going to have to face up to this dilemma at some point.
“Our communities have changed. We no longer grow up with many generations in the same house. Divorce is allowed; there are single parents; there’s a huge population coming through who will probably be ageing without children. And who does decide to have children ‘just so they can look after me when I’m older’? That’s not usually the motivation. So where is the money going to come from and how is our society going to work? These are really important questions to address.”
cross-generational discussions
“The Ageing Without Children groups help with paperwork and documents, but there’s more to it than that. What about isolation? What about socialisation? What Social Care? Is going to be cross-generational so that it can focus on these issues. It’s important for the elderly to be involved to highlight the problems, but also for the younger generations to know what’s to come in the future, and what’s expected of us now.
“The creativity comes in how you start a conversation about these topics. So with our ‘What Cost Folkestone?’ we did a badge making session; a collage session; we put on an exhibition with artwork from people on the theme of wellbeing and money. There was a session where people could write a prescription for Folkestone and then put it up on the wall. Our Lego sessions were really helpful for people to play and create, but create something new rather than images of characters that existed already. We worked with Touchbase Care and a lot of their imagery was of Sonic the Hedgehog or Pokemons. Once they got working with Lego they were able to create something that was from their own imagination.”
our own words
“I think it’s really interesting to get people to write down what they’re thinking, and in their own words. It makes you realise that you might not have looked at the issue in that way, from that perspective. There’s a motto I use which comes from Disability Arts Movement which is ‘Nothing About Us, Without Us.’ And so when I report on my findings it’s good to take someone who was involved with me so they can speak out and be heard. It’s this idea of putting the person at the forefront of our thinking, and what we do. From our work we have been able to get systemic change. Doing a little project here in Folkestone has had an impact on lots of places around the country. For example, we worked with the Nepalese community here who highlighted that accessing their GP is hard with the lack of translators available. So that was a basic change to make – improve translations and more communities can access services.
“The thing with creative projects is you don’t need to wait until the end for the results. You get actions all along the way. We improve socialising, people are less isolated just because they’re involved in our activities. People are interested in our methodology rather than the specifics of what we have found. The methodology means you can apply our project to your setting. Although, having said that, reading what our responses were in What Costs Folkestone some things can definitely be directly lifted and worked on in Hull or Bristol.”
Community trust
“Another good message we’re giving here is that there are so many good things happening in local areas that no one knows about. We don’t know about the services others are offering, there’s no join up. As a result, there’s a lot of repetition. But these community groups have built a lot of trust and connections, and that’s who the researchers should be going to. Look at the communities that are already established rather than creating new cohorts. But this is also what you do as an artist. I’m saying that creative thinking leads to innovative ways of opening up dialogue with people.
“There are academic posters, which I hadn’t known much about, but they tend to have a lot of writing on them. And we did a session with the University of Kent where they had many of these posters which questions on for the public. Our audience came along and by the end of the day we had buckets on the floor and people were throwing balls into the ones which represented their priorities. Much easier and more creative than reading a hugely impenetrable poster to try and find the question that needed answering. So that’s what I do here – try and react, respond and engage through creative means.”
