To increase awareness of people living with chronic pain in the UK and highlight the lack of funding and understanding for those in chronic pain, through multiple arts and performance platforms.
To promote social inclusion for those who have been excluded due to chronic pain by offering arts-based participatory opportunities and creative self-expression.
Something Chronic is an arts-based organisation created to ensure that chronic pain and its complexities are better understood in the UK. We are using the arts to re-imagine chronic pain as we believe this is the most powerful, direct and effective way to deliver our message.
In order to increase awareness of chronic pain we will commission professional-standard works of art that express an element of chronic pain in a fresh, dynamic, provocative fashion, aimed to illicit a new perception of chronic pain that will stimulate discussion and, hopefully, change.
These artworks will be showcased on our dedicated website, along with some general information about chronic pain, all in a user-friendly, accessible and a welcoming way. In the co-founders experience, and from our research, this arts-driven and positive approach has not been taken by other pain charities. Our art will include illustration, photography, music, film and poetry, and will seek to promote greater understanding of the realities of living with chronic pain. It will be freely accessible to the public.
To fulfil our second purpose of ensuring chronic pain sufferers feel less isolated we will use the website to foster an online community of people suffering with the condition and encourage them to participate in creative projects for the website as well as advertise our events. Events will include workshops to engage chronic pain sufferers in arts-based social activities, such as
expressive movement classes, drama games, and music workshops, as well as exhibitions of our commissioned artwork, all aimed at helping them reclaim their voice and bodies. These events, which we will charge a small entrance fee for, will also help raise funds to commission further projects.
In this way, we will be bringing our message to the widest possible audience and changing the perception of chronic pain in the UK.
We are not a medical or healthcare organisation, nor are we set up to provide solutions or alleviate physical symptoms for chronic pain sufferers. We are purely an arts organisation advocating for social change and promoting social inclusion.
