Boredom Buster
How can I get copies of Boredom Buster?
-
Hospitals, health and care settings can order batches of Boredom Buster: Summer Annual and find out about future editions.
-
UHBW staff: please email your request with quantity and location. Copies will be delivered via internal post.
Audio playlist: To hear the tunes mentioned in Boredom Buster, click this link
What is Boredom Buster?
Earlier this year, UHBW worked with Culture Weston and members of the NHS National Performance Advisory Group for Arts, Design and Heritage in Hospitals to create ‘Boredom Buster: Summer Annual’.
Devised by UHBW Arts Programme Director, Anna Farthing, as a response to restrictions in hospital visiting, this 48 page tabloid style publication is filled with arts and health activities that are proven to alleviate isolation, anxiety, and banish boredom.
The response has been overwhelming. To date, 40,000 copies have been distributed, not only to UHBW sites but also to hospitals and other healthcare organisations across the UK. Patients, staff and people in isolation have appreciated engaging with this dose of creativity and there is strong demand for a second edition.
Who contributed to the Boredom Buster: Summer Annual’?
Boredom Buster was a pioneering collaborative project between the arts and culture sector, hospital arts teams and participatory arts professionals. It was a huge collaborative effort that included a wealth of contributions from some well known creative industry professionals including Antony Gormley, Martin Parr, Sarah Hickson, David Dimbleby, Jeremy Deller, Mark Ravenhill, Patrick Gale, Kalpna Woolf, Luke Jerram, Wayne McGregor, Manoj Malde, Dr Phil Hammond. The compilation was informed by the work of Dr Lizzie Burns, founder of the ‘Anti-boredom Campaign’
What’s inside the Boredom Buster?
Packed with articles, activities and images, Boredom Buster touches on a huge range of topics including history, art, science, poetry, writing, photography, fashion, dance, travel, food, outdoors and wellbeing. And of course, music.
All that is required to engage with Boredom Buster is a pen. With this you can play travel games, trace around your fingers, design your dream garden with help from Chelsea Flower Show designer Manoj Malde, or try your hand at creative writing with tips from novelist Patrick Gale or UHBW Poet in Residence Beth Calverley. Even without a pen, you can read the larger than average font, try out the verbal games, read aloud from Mark Ravenhill’s playlet, fold an origami heart, create your own ‘zine’ or tear out Antony Gormley’s string of paper figures.
Each single copy can be named for infection control purposes.
Why not give these Boredom Buster Summer Annual activities a go?
