Tsuru Project
The Tsuru Project was an 8 week long collaborative staff project based at the Ysbyty’r Seren field hospital, which culminated in a visual installation on the 23rd March 2021: a poignant date, 1 year on since the UK went into national lockdown due to Covid-19.
During the pandemic, it has been widely covered in the press that NHS and agency staff have felt stress, anxiety, and depression, often working in busy and stretched departments to provide the care that those suffering with Covid-19 need to survive. For some staff, this has been care they need to provide to their own colleagues. What these staff have been through over the last 9 months has been incredibly difficult to put into words, but the Tsuru project aimed to empower them with 5 minutes of simple mindfulness, where they can have a small moment peace, learn a new skill, and contribute as and when they desire to a striking and poignant piece of collaborative visual art.
In Japanese culture, the Tsuru (or crane) symbolises hope in difficult times, and this resonated with so many individuals that the project quickly grew to include not just staff from Ysbyty’r Seren, but also the wider Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, and even members of the public. Tanio received over 400 cranes made by people all over South Wales and they were strung together to make a striking visual art installation at Tanio HQ in Bettws.
“… it was an opportunity for me to take my mind off things”
You can find out more about the project and its impact through this video:
Quotes
“… it was an opportunity for me to take my mind off things”
