Art is Freedom: Creativity, Identity and Wellbeing

Art is Freedom is Hestia’s annual art exhibition, featuring work created by survivors of modern slavery, delivered in collaboration with Ashurst Perkins Coie.

Create delivers painting workshops as part of Hestia’s Art is Freedom campaign, where survivors can learn and refine their skills, before submitting their best pieces for the exhibition.

Hestia’s Underground Lives research into mental health found that three quarters of survivors surveyed said they were “really struggling” with their mental health when they were first identified through the National Referral Mechanism, falling to 20% after receiving support from Hestia.

More recent research commissioned by Hestia and carried out with The Evidence Centre reviewed 480 studies examining purposeful and enjoyable activities for people recovering from trauma and crisis. Nine in ten studies identified clear benefits, with factors including social connection, enjoyment and achievement highlighted within the research.

LV*, 30, has been supported by Hestia for around a year. She told us about finding space to paint again, exploring her identity through art and creating work she feels proud to share.

FINDING HER WAY BACK TO PAINTING

Art was not new to LV, but her circumstances had made it difficult to create in the way she wanted:

“It was my first chance to engage with art again, especially painting. During the last year, I’ve lived in a very limited space where I didn’t have enough room to have a paint set or canvas or anything, and it was also nice to have the community of people around me that have gone through similar things that I felt safe with.

“It was honestly just a really great experience for me and I enjoyed it so much. I’m really proud of the work I created, which usually is something that I would struggle with a little. When I would create art, I would always be very critical of it. I just really love these pieces.”

Nature, flowers and memories became important sources of inspiration:

“Honestly, it’s my love for nature and flowers particularly, as well as being very interested in how memories appear to me. With one of my pieces, the way it looks reminds me of how my memories of the sky and sunlight look, which is really important to me. I think it’s a very nostalgic feeling.”

EXPLORING IDENTITY THROUGH “THIS IS ME”

When LV first heard the theme of the project, ‘This is Me’, she found the prospect challenging. As she spent time thinking about it, however, she found a way to approach identity through the things that mattered to her:

“When they first told me that [‘This is Me’] was the theme, I got so nervous because it’s something that I struggle with because of my experiences. I struggle with having an identity and understanding what I am.

“But I ended up thinking a lot about it and deciding that I could find those things in what I love and what’s around me. Like flowers, for example, and nature and the sky and everything like that. So I ended up taking those things into me.

“My final piece is a more direct representation of myself as a mannequin, because that’s more how I feel. Whereas everything around it is the things which I love.”

A SPACE AWAY FROM EVERYDAY STRESS

The workshops also gave LV a space when she could put other pressures aside:

“It was a space to get away from everything stressful. In the past year I’ve been going through a lot, like moving and having to set up things, and just a lot of new experiences that are very complicated and very stressful.

“But it was just a space where I could go and just paint and just see other people’s creativity and not worry about any of that for a couple of hours.”

She described the experience of creating as “really relaxing”:

“With everything else in my life being stressful, it was like a little bubble that I could go into and not have to worry about things and just focus on something that I really enjoy.”

CREATIVITY AND WELLBEING

Having the workshops as a regular part of her week gave LV something positive to anticipate:

“It definitely helped with the anxiety and stress I experience because I do worry about things and overthink things. But it forced me to reset and just focus on art for a while and not worry about stuff, which ended up making me feel a lot calmer and not worry as much.

“Because even if I had a lot of stressful things coming up, I would know, ‘Wednesday I get to paint, and that’s going to be fun’. So it’ll give me a little bit of a break. And that really helped with not worrying too much about stuff in those weeks.”

WHY HAVING THE CHANCE TO CREATE MATTERS

When asked why creative opportunities are important, LV reflected not only on her own experience, but on what she observed among the other participants:

“When you have trauma, you end up with a lot of self-worth issues. And I know a lot of people who are in the [workshop] with me, they say, ‘I’m not creative, I can’t draw’.

“But it turned out they could create all these beautiful artworks, and they found memories and things that they loved, that they had forgotten about and repressed because of all the stress of daily life.

“And I think that it really helps bring out what someone truly feels like, and their love for things.”

CONNECTING WITH OTHERS AND SHARING HER WORK

Although LV doesn’t consider herself particularly social or talkative, creating alongside other people gave her a natural starting point for connection:

“It was really nice. I’m not a super social or talkative person, but I did find that I was able to talk about the art, to ask people, ‘What was your inspiration for that?’. Or just compliment it and say, ‘that looks lovely’.

“It was a really positive space, and I just felt really comfortable and safe there.”

She is also looking forward to other people experiencing what she has created:

“I’m excited because it’s my first [piece of] art in a long time that I’m very proud of, and I hope that other people will like it and perhaps understand the feelings that I put into it as well.”

FINDING SUPPORT THROUGH HESTIA

LV has been supported by Hestia for around a year. During that time, she has received support including access to therapy:

“It’s been incredibly helpful. They helped me to access therapy, which has helped so much.

“To give context, I was very isolated for most of my life, and this is something that I also put in the description of my artworks as well. So I didn’t really learn how to do things the same way that other people do, and suddenly being free into the world is so confusing. There’s so many responsibilities and so many things that just don’t make sense.”

Being able to ask questions of people who understand her experiences has made navigating those responsibilities feel less isolating:

“They’ve also been able to answer a lot of questions for me and help me with very complicated stuff. And it’s made me feel like I’m not as alone in navigating how complicated everything about being an adult is.”

CREATIVITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE

LV lives with chronic pain, which can make everyday activities difficult, but having the opportunity and environment to create continues to matter:

“At the moment, I am disabled and chronic pain is really bad for me. So, a lot of my days I honestly just cannot get out of bed because of pain. It was really nice to have a space that I could go to every week and do something productive and joyful.”

“I’m hoping that over time I’ll be able to make a space where I can be more creative. And even if a lot of my days, chronic pain is keeping me down, the days when it’s not, I’ll be able to do more enjoyable things.”

Create is proud to support Hestia’s annual Art is Freedom exhibition, in collaboration with Ashurst Perkins Coie. We deliver workshops that help survivors of modern slavery connect and explore through art.

* Participant name changed to protect anonymity.