Papers of Langley Brown

  • Brown, Langley
Date:
1978-2013
Reference:
ART/LAB
  • Archives and manuscripts

About this work

Description

The records cover various projects and organisations that Brown has worked with, including Manchester Hospital Arts (now Lime), Start, i am (Inspired Arts Movement), Stockport Arts for Health, Bridgehead Arts and Arts For Health. The records include conference papers, reports, correspondence, meeting papers, photographs, original artwork, digital and audio visual material.

Publication/Creation

1978-2013

Physical description

12 boxes, 6 outsize items, 8 VHS, 2 DVD, 10 data CDs

Contributors

Arrangement

The files are arranged into the various organisations Brown worked with in the following order:

A. Hospital Arts and Lime

B. Start (Sheltered Training in Art)

C. Stockport Arts For Health

D. i am (Inspired Arts Movement)

E. Arts For Health

F. Bridgehead Arts

G. Records spanning Langley Brown's career

Acquisition note

Donated between 17 August-16 September 2015.

Biographical note

Langley Brown is an artist, writer and researcher working in the field of arts and health. Brown joined Manchester Hospital Arts (now Lime) in 1978. In 1986 he co-founded Start (Sheltered Training in the Arts) with Wendy Teal and served as director until 1996. Start is network of studios for people recovering from mental illness which enables members to work alongside practising artists and craftspeople. During his tenure as director, Brown helped establish related projects in Salford, Oldham and Stockport, and advised on setting up similar schemes around the UK.

Brown was a founder member of the steering group for i am (inspired arts movement), a UK national forum which held two conferences in 1996 and 1999 which celebrated the pioneer years of arts and mental health work and encouraged development in non-therapy arts practice. He represented the UK at the final conference in UNESCO's ten-year Art in Hospital project and went on to co-organise the thematic programme for the CHARTS99, the World Symposium on Culture, Health and the Arts hosted by Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University in 1999.

In the 2000s Langley Brown was a director of Bridgehead Arts, a Derbyshire company based in Buxton which developed collaborations using the human senses as foundations for arts practice. For instance, working with Aidan Shingler and the Antidotes, touring Only Smarties have the Answer, a performance work devised by Aidan to expose abuses within the psychiatric system.

In 2006 Brown received his doctorate from Manchester Metropolitan University for his study "Is Art Therapy? Art for mental health at the millennium". He returned to the University in 2010 and helped co-ordinate the accumulation of records from various groups under the umbrella term "The Arts for Health Archive". Many of these were deposited with Wellcome Collection in 2015 under the reference ART.

Related material

ART/AFH: Arts For Health: archive ART/ASH: Papers of Aidan Shingler ART/LIM: Lime Arts ART/SAH: Stockport Arts & Health: archives

Terms of use

This collection has been catalogued and is available to library members. Some items have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records.

Ownership note

A number of Arts and Health organisations deposited their collections at Manchester Metropolitan University to form what was known as the Arts for Health archive. In 2015, these papers were donated to Wellcome Library and subsequently divided into the following collections, with a unifying 'ART' prefix in the reference number. These collections are in the process of being catalogued; search the archives catalogue using the collection reference number for further information.

  • Arts for Health archive: the main organisational archive of Arts for Health; "ART/AFH".
  • Healing Arts, Isle of Wight archive: Papers of Healing Arts, Isle of Wight from its establishment in 1984 up to 2012; "ART/IOW"..
  • Mike White archive: Papers relating to Mike White's work for Arts for Health while at Gateshead Council and Durham University; "ART/MIW"
  • Langley Brown archive: Papers relating to Langley Brown's work for Manchester Hospital Arts (now Lime), and for Start (Sheltered Training in the Arts); "ART/LAB".
  • Stockport Arts and Health archive: Papers of Stockport Arts and Health, 1990-2008; "ART/SAH".
  • Aiden Shingler archive: Papers of Aiden Shingler, relating to his work with Arts for Health; "ART/ASH"..
  • Graham Cooper archive: Cooper's working notes and research folders for projects on effects of hospital architecture on patient wellbeing and care; "ART/COO".
  • Lime Arts archive: Papers of Lime Arts, 1973-2007; "ART/LIM".
  • Artlink West Yorkshire: Organisational records, 1984-2010, "ART/AWY".
  • In addition, some grey literature and publications have been added to the Library's holdings, and can be searched for in the Library catalogue by searching "Donor: Arts for Health"
  • Permanent link

    Identifiers

    Accession number

    • 2204