Galina Gardiner, PGR, 果冻传媒 Medical School
The project: Creativity, wellbeing and collaboration: A webinar to design a digital exhibition promoting the cross-cultural exchange of art-for-wellbeing experiences among young adult caregivers in Nigeria and the UK.
I organised and delivered a webinar for young adult caregivers in Nigeria and the UK who have participated in art-for-wellbeing initiatives as part of my doctoral research. The webinar brought participants from four groups together to share experiences and collaboratively design an online gallery to showcase their artwork and their reflections on engaging with community-based visual art. Together, we brainstormed different ideas for communicating what it meant to create art together as young adults in challenging situations. Following the webinar, participants have been contributing their images and reflections in the form of photos, descriptions, poems and videos. Using the outputs of the webinar discussion I am collating these responses into a series of webpages that will be linked from my main 果冻传媒 PGR webpage. These pages will have reciprocal links with project partners鈥� websites and social media platforms including , , Nigeria鈥檚 and , , University of Ibadan, and Obafemi Awolowo University.
The intended outcome is for my art-for-wellbeing research to have ongoing practical impact by demonstrating the potential of visual art groups to benefit young peoples鈥� wellbeing using their own voices. The website will facilitate cross-cultural dialogue among stakeholders including young caregivers鈥� groups, creative health organisations, art galleries and Universities, with a view to generating more research and practice in the global art-for-wellbeing arena.
Summary of project outcomes
A two-hour webinar was held on 2nd April. All four groups were represented, with 28 of the 37 young adult caregivers and 11 of the group co-facilitators/art leaders attending. The majority of participants in each group gathered in a venue accessible to that group, with an interactive projector. A few joined remotely using their own devices. During the first hour groups shared their diverse art activities, experiences and artworks with one another for the first time. During the second hour we formed breakout rooms to brainstorm ideas for the online gallery, followed by a plenary discussion on how to go forward. Participants agreed they would select artworks and send me their responses in the form of written description, photographs, film, poetry or other creative forms of reflection. We agreed to use their chosen pseudonyms to give them recognition for their artwork, yet remain anonymous for the purposes of the research. I am currently compiling participants鈥� contributions into an online gallery in the form of several webpages linked from my main 果冻传媒 PGR page. To date I have responses from 15 young adult caregivers and the webpages are in progress.
Reflective Art Gallery by Young Adult Carers in Nigeria and the UK - Art Exhibition
Has the project supported further interdisciplinary work
The webinar has enabled my continued involvement with one of the UK Young Carers鈥� charities. This has led to a successful submission to present my PhD research and impact activities alongside the carers鈥� charity at the International Young Carers鈥� Conference, Berlin, in October 2026. I hope to present jointly with one of the young adult caregivers who was involved in the research, in line with the participatory action approach of the project. This will enable me to network with other academics in related disciplines / topic areas.
Following completion of my PhD I intend to use the webinar event and resulting online gallery as examples of beneficial impact activities, to promote the argument for investment in further art-for-wellbeing research, policy and practice using a participatory action approach with marginalised young adults in different cultural contexts. This will be achieved through applications for post-doctoral fellowships, research grants and new investigator grants in art-for-wellbeing and related topics, via appropriate bodies such as the ESRC or UoW.