Discovering Hartwood
Discovering Hartwood is a day long free open house event at Shotts Community Centre as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival!
About Discovering Hartwood
A multi-layered arts event being hosted to celebrate and share stories of the often-hidden history of Hartwood Hospital, a former psychiatric hospital in Shotts. Featuring storytelling performances, live music, drama workshops and an exhibition.
Storyteller Jane Mather and harpist Heather Yule will deliver In the Hartwood, a storytelling adventure which reveals a new history regarding Hartwood Hospital and it’s Paupers Cemetery. Celebrated soprano Monica McGhee will perform three of Scottish composer Robert McHardy’s lost songs.
'In the Hartwood' is a celebration of the lives of the patients at Hartwood Psychiatric Hospital which was open between 1895 and 1998 - at one time Scotland's biggest asylum.
As part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, 'Discovering Hartwood' day at Shotts will feature this special performance focusing on the lives of those who died in the institution. While the building now lies in ruins a team of volunteers tends the paupers cemetery in the grounds, and whilst uncovering their last resting place have also been discovering their remarkable stories.
In part one Storyteller Jane Mather and harpist Heather Yule will tell a modern fairytale about the cemetery and the folk who care for the graves today guiding you into the faerie realm where dreams are powerful and spirits abound.
Part two focuses in on the amazing story of one patient -Strathaven's Polish Baroness ‘Lady Felice’, and in particular her relationship with Robert Machardy, a celebrated Scottish Composer of Victorian times.
Motherwell born soprano Monica McGhee accompanied by Geoffrey Tanti on Piano will resurrect three Machardy songs which, to our knowledge, have not been played in public for at least a hundred years, the music for which until recently had been languishing in the archives of the British Library.
• The Soldier - was composed in 1879
• Song of the Sea - originally commissioned in 1879 by Thérèse Tietjens a leading opera and oratorio soprano during the 1860s and 1870s.
• What is there in that beaming eye - 1876
The workshops and performances aim to reveal a deeper understanding of mental health issues, promote dialogue and encourage community healing through the arts.
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