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Well-Making and Making-Well: Craft, Design and Everyday Creativity for Health and Well-Being
  • ISSN: 2040-2457
  • E-ISSN: 2040-2465

Abstract

This article examines two community arts textile projects to consider the relationship between workshops, as method (and methodology), and the research/knowledge that emerges from and through them. The ‘workshop’ is understood as the structural relationship between people, processes, materials and place, while ‘work’ is the knowledge/research that emerges from these interactions. While different in intent and structure, both projects share concerns about making, health and well-being. Craftivist Garden #wellMAKING worked with a network of local amateur craft groups across the United Kingdom to think critically about health and well-being, while Kotha and Kantha examined how stitch serves as an alternative well-making strategy for a group of Bangladeshi-born women living in Manchester, United Kingdom. The article argues that thinking about the workshop as a ‘holding form’ and/or ‘bloom space’ and paying attention to the stories told and artefacts (knowledge objects) made in workshops is vital to understanding their value.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • The Arts and Humanities Research Council (Award AH/K0067891)
© 2022 Intellect Ltd
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2023-01-16
2026-04-12

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/content/journals/10.1386/jaah_00113_1
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Crafting with a purpose: How the ‘work’ of the workshop makes, promotes and embodies well-being
Journal of Applied Arts & Health 13, 307 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1386/jaah_00113_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jaah_00113_1
/content/journals/10.1386/jaah_00113_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): community; craftivism; hand-stitch; Kantha; material culture; storytelling; well-making

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