Promoting Wellbeing and Positive Thinking through Art Therapy

26 May 2020

Mollie Browne, recently received an award from the Thomas Devlin Fund to support her journey on an Art Foundation Course at the Ulster School of Art in Belfast. A past pupil of Cookstown High School Mollie has always had a strong interest in Art and Design,  taking a special interest in Art Therapy using creative arts as a tool to promote wellbeing and positive thinking.

The Thomas Devlin bursary gave Mollie the opportunity to study an Art Foundation course and begin her chosen Degree specialism of Fine Art.  Following Mollie’s Art Foundation Degree, she would like to return to Cookstown High School to promote the creative arts sector and share her vast opportunities and her experiences through receiving the Bursary.

The Fund was set up in memory of Thomas Devlin who, at the age of 15, was murdered in an unprovoked attack. It provides a bursary scheme that aims to support gifted young people with exciting and unique opportunities to develop their skills and talent in music, the arts and drama and over the last ten years, bursaries have supported over 60 young people in a range of diverse activities.  Assisting a local dancer hoping to work with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, funding living costs in London to enable a young person  to take part in a summer National Youth Theatre Production and  funding a 2-week residential cello course in Minnesota are just some examples of how this fund in memory of Thomas has helped

Mollie Browne, “Receiving the Thomas Devlin Fund has been a huge financial help in allowing me to pursue my passion for Art in an Art Foundation Degree. The fund allowed my artistic freedom to flourish without boundaries by providing the resources I needed to express myself through various mediums of art including, drawing, painting and sculpture. I have developed the confidence to start selling my artwork in the ‘Unique’, Art and Design Shop in Belfast which I’ve never done before. In September I am looking forward to studying my chosen specialist degree of Fine Art. I am very grateful for the opportunities afforded to me through the Thomas Devlin Fund and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Penny, Jim and the Community Foundation Team. Art is often regarded wrongly as a poor subject with few career prospects, but this is simply not true. Having completed my Art Foundation Degree I believe now more than ever that Art has a very important part in our society. We as a community can support our local artists and also use Art as a means of promoting wellbeing and positive thinking.”

The Thomas Devlin Fund is currently closed for applications and you should revisit our website or sign up to receive our monthly ezine to find out when it will reopen. Our open grants are here.