(Words and photos kindly supplied) 

As she marks a decade of helping thousands of vulnerable people find their way through life with art, one Christchurch woman is wondering what the future will look like now Government funding has finished.

Lis Rate-Smith founded the initiative Art-East in 2014 with the idea of helping people living with addiction issues to have a creative outlet while also offering a sense of community she felt was missing from alcohol and drug treatment which tended to have a “clinical rather than strength-based” focus.

On Friday Art-East marks a decade of supporting marginalised people with art by holding a dessert evening where art, jewellery and cards will be sold.

In the past five years the multi-disciplinary art studio has grown because of the community need to include people living with homelessness, poverty, mental ill health and isolation which had increased ”hugely” since Covid.

Every day Lis Rate-Smith witnesses someone’s life change with the stroke of a paintbrush or the deft placement of colour.

The art-group programme with therapeutic benefits, which she has facilitated for a decade, is part of Drug Arm and offers regular group outings and collaborations, counselling and one-on-one ”art mentoring” from its Aranui site.

Some members have been attending for years, long after they have recovered, purely because they enjoy the community aspect.

”We don’t have a huge number of resources. We are lucky to have some good space thanks to the support of the local church and are trying to get a permanent carving studio set up,” said Lis Rate-Smith.

Social agencies and attendees describe Art-East as meeting a vital need, with users commenting:  ”I found non-judgmental acceptance”; ”shared joy”; ”no longer as lonely” and ”It helped me through grief and helped others who where abusing drugs or were living on the street”.

In 2021 Art-East was awarded the Arts Access Holdsworth Creative Space Award at the Te Putanga Toi Arts Access Awards.

The Government acknowledged Art-East’s success by granting funding through the Ministry of Heritage and Culture to allow it to open its doors more regularly.

When she was presented with the award, Lis Rate-Smith described it as: ”A significant milestone as far as the Government recognising the value of art and what benefits can come out of it for society.”

To remain open during Covid, Art-East, like a number of small arts organisations, received three years of funding through the Ministry of Culture and Heritage targeted fund.

”We are grateful for that. That funding stream has ended, of course, and now everyone is reapplying for funding again but the funding criteria are now impossible for small organisations to fit them,” she said.

“For example, one criteria is that before you can apply you need to have a huge amount outside of assets. We are operating out of a church in Aranui and rely on local community supporters. Most grassroots organisations like ours are being shut out from Government funding streams. It almost seems designed to fund only large corporate entities and cut off the little guy. I am afraid many small groups will have to shut their doors.”

The statistics she has quickly to hand are sobering: 50% of Art-East attendees are Maori; 70% are neurodiverse and 70% have previous experience of the prison system.

”All attendees have experienced mental distress due to the nature of addiction plus further mental health issues or diagnosis,” she said. ”It is an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. We need to be doing more earlier on. Current research shows that 45% of New Zealanders who regularly use illicit substances screen positive for adult ADHD.”

Schools need support to better recognise and support the needs of neurodiverse students and she said there needs to be wider education about neurodiversity in general because the accommodations which help neurodiverse students thrive would also benefit and support neurotypical students.

Lis Rate-Smith also works with young people in justice residences and men in prison and found it ”hugely rewarding”.

Some of the best artists she has encountered are ”languishing in our prisons”.

”There is a section of people who think we should just shut them away and throw away the key. But eventually they will return to our community and I believe it is important to help people have a creative outlet, to show them another way to help process their emotions,” Lis Rate-Smith said.

”Some tend to undervalue art, they believe it is a luxury or a nice-to-have. Having worked with people using art for 10 years, I have seen how art is a necessity for mental health and well-being and it must be accessible to everyone in society for the greater benefit of all.”

10th ANNIVERSARY PARTY

Art-East, an art initiative of Drug Arm which offers an art space and community to people with addictions, homelessness and facing isolation, is marking its 10th anniversary on Friday, October 4, with an event at 116 Shortland St, Aranui, from 7pm-9pm. As part of the event, artists will have the opportunity to sell some of their artworks, including jewellery, paintings and cards. The dessert evening will also include a slideshow of memories shown throughout in the on-site cinema and live music performances.