MAACAL: Statues Also Breathe

Catharsis Arts Foundation in collaboration with Obafemi-Awolowo University and 108 students, 2022

This exhibition presents a collaboration between Obafemi-Awolowo University, 108 students from all across Nigeria, and the families of the Chibok girls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. 

Inspired by the iconic terracotta heads of Ife, it was initiated by artists Prune Nourry and Ade Bantu and seeks to raise awareness on the plight of the missing girls, and to highlight the diversity of Nigerian culture. . . .

On Thursday I visited MAACAL - Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, an art gallery  I first read about in FTWeekend Life&Arts, not long after first visiting Marrakech in 2023.

The main exhibit presents itself straight away after entering:

Statues Also Breathe, exhibition view, Art Twenty One, Lagos, Nigeria
 ©Dohdohndawa Photography/DDD Studios

A short but touching film in the gallery bears testimony to the fact many 'school girls' are still absent. Repetition is standard method in design. In today's manufactured world you might think what is so special about this? Until you are there physically, and walk through them. You see each one, a who: unique, an individual, a person taken away from where they belong.

As a white man from NW England, there was a moment when I realised: I was on the same continent where this had happened and is ongoing. Searching Youtube reveals other related videos concerning the exhibitions. It's strange watching them again as a check on their availability. A short video of an event to launch three new installations earlier this year is worth watching. Unfortunately, my phone failed until I got back to Marrakech, so I've no photos. I've three works in mind though.

I walked there, and back after trying to sort a taxi with a lovely couple from Germany and their son. Some taxis are limited to carry three persons. This is what arrived. The sun, even behind clouds that day, and flights taking off from the airport helped my sense of direction. The girls, seeking an education, did not have these means of navigation.

The garden at MAACAL was small but lovely. I hope to return one day, and well before then . . .

Did 'to a T' find its inspiration in Rio de Janeiro?

... or somewhere else?

to a T

A new game from Keita Takahashi

"'to a T' is an episodic 3D adventure game developed by Keita Takahashi and the uvula team, with a strong focus on character, interaction, story and exploration. Play as a teenager (Teen), with a unique posture just trying to live a normal life in a small coastal town. Explore the town along with the help of Teen’s loyal dog and loving mother. While going to school and contending with bullies, Teen discovers a new ability granted to them by their extraordinary posture, and they start to uncover more about their mysterious lineage."

'to a T' - image https://annapurnainteractive.com/en/games/to-a-t

Developer - https://uvula.jp/

I have never been as far south as Rio de Janeiro. It would be marvellous to visit Tijuca National Park - Alto da Boa Vista, Rio de Janeiro - RJ.

But then ... 🌍🌎🌏🌐

My source: Tom Faber, In praise of gaming's auteurs. Financial Times, 11 June, 2025, p.18.

ii "Nye" | Full Show [now ended] | National Theatre at Home

Watching yesterday on YouTube, I enjoyed NYE and was challenged by it personally and as a grandfather, son, nurse and tax-payer.

It wasn't all sweetness and light regards Aneurin "Nye" Bevin's character. Politically, he clearly pushed boundaries in response to the values he carried on his sleeve. As the family's of many health care professionals may recognise, needs outside the family can be prioritised at the family's cost. The theory-practice gap is expressed in so many ways. 

Whether by intent, or accident, the play points to the timeless challenge of social care and women's role in delivery of this care. This strikes home in the drama not just as care of the elderly, but being confronted (alone) with the slow, painful dying of a loved-one; and the reality of occupational diseases - 'black lung'. Women are exploited as carers, their hearts and feet may as well be bound; in the same way the mine owners exploited the workers. There was a stark reminder for me, of how continuity of care is often lacking today.

Nye becomes personal, as even up to 1970s working class parents would have worried, did worry about the prospect of their (invariably male - with some exceptions?) offspring going down the pit, especially in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Watching and listening to this you can appreciate how education was seen a passport to alternative white-collar work. My paternal grandfather worked in a slate quarry. I recall many invites to punch him in the 'stomach': a slate wall. He walked quite a few miles to work and wasn't that old when he died; although he (soon) followed grandma J.

For quite a while I've been drawn to the theatre. Aged 15 I was Francis Nurse - yes, the irony - in the school play, Arthur Miller's, The Crucible. It was Miss Smith, a drama teacher who first brought my attention to the idea of 'social awareness'. I recall Miss Clayton too who was a student teacher. On visits to London I've been struck by the relevance of Ibsen today. 

If there were to be a play in me, perhaps 'Axes and Crosses' must be-up-there as a working title? For  my father the 11+ exam was the icon to ward off the evil that was work down a mine; or lying under a an excavator / crane at 0400 to get the machine fixed for the shift due to start. The 11+ and need to pass this has provided its own anxiety, burden, and it must be said - motivation not just for me, but many more senior adults. I can see this now. So thank you Tim Price, National Theatre and Nye (2025!) for many further insights into stagecraft. 

See also:
https://www.bohs.org/media-resources/press-releases/detail/deadly-lung-disease-in-uk-kitchen-worktop-workers-is-avoidable/

September 2024: 'The Lightest Element'
https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2024/the-lightest-element/

Previously:
What wright to care?

drama (theatre), arts

Science and Critical Thinking: c/o New Scientist 2015*

individual

|

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

group - population

4. "That works for some, but all too often the reaction is: "I'll never need to use this once I've left school. That is being taken up by the Programme for International Student Assessment." "critical thinking toolkits"

3. "... the desired combination of scientific literacy and critical thinking remains rare in public discourse. Perhaps that is because we hope that children will learn to evaluate claims rationally if we teach them science. ... But mastery of the [scientific] facts alone is not enough for the internet age. Much of the copious online rhetoric is more viral than factual, so it is just as important that we know how to evaluate sources of information., and how to tell correlation from causation, and opinion from fact - in matters both obviously scientific and otherwise. "

1. "Here's a game to play next time you catch the news headlines. Count how many would dissolve away or be markedly different if the people writing them had evaluated the evidence more critically. Your count will probably be alarmingly high." 5. "But our societies still have a long way to go when it comes to reading between the headlines - or rewriting them."

2. "We have a long tradition of allowing civic affairs to be settled by persuasive rhetoric. That is inadequate for our modern society." "a reflective citizen" public understanding of  terrorism, vaccination, climate change, chemical pollution ..

PISA is the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment. PISA measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.

My source:
Leader, Critical thinking, New Scientist, 12 December. 2015, 228: 3051. p.5.

*Yes, still also sorting magazines, papers, notes...
Blue (paper) bin repeatedly quite full.

#FreePeriods - Period Poverty (Schools opt-in January 2020)

INDIVIDUAL

|

INTER-PERSONAL : SCIENCES

HUMANISTIC -------------------------------------------------- MECHANISTIC

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

GROUP

understanding awareness access	PERIOD
The RED box project Schools - must opt-in	POVERTY government funding

BBC Radio 4: 5 December 2019 [ from 20 mins...]

"After a long campaign from #FreePeriods, the Government agreed to fund a scheme to ensure all primary and secondary schools and colleges provided free period products to menstruating pupils. This was meant to start rolling out in September 2019 but has now been pushed back to January 2020. It is an opt-in scheme and so schools and colleges must sign up to receive free sanitary products. Gemma Abbott is a campaigner for FreePeriods and volunteer from the charity The Red Box Project, and Nadia Collier is a family support worker at a primary school in London, who has first-hand experience of how important these free period products can be."

Updated - Additional resource c/o RCN publications:

Promoting Menstrual Wellbeing

Publication Code : 007 856

"Menstruation is both a physiological and psychological milestone in a woman’s life. This publication has been developed to help nurses break down the stigma that can be associated with what is a completely natural process. It is important to use appropriate and flexible communication methods to ensure information on the menstrual cycle is delivered in an accessible format for women. This publication has a supporting promotional flyer (007 857) and both resources are supported by Hologic’s Wear White Again campaign."

"Perceptions of Nursing and of a Midwestern Associate Degree Nursing Program" study by Shannon Frodge

In August I posted the news and success of Shannon Frodge's Master's study in which Hodges' model was used as a theoretical framework.

I've copied the abstract, Shannon's reference to Hodges' model and her research questions below. There are some 55 pages, 9,700 words in total, if you want to the read the discussion and conclusion well according to Shannon the text is available on ProQuest.

Every so often I'll bring up the matter of nurse, health and social care recruitment on W2TQ: it really is going to be critical. I do not work in HR - recruitment, but being interested in public (mental) health I am very conscious of demographic trends and be(d)sides standards of care matter too...

Thanks Shannon for the copy, your specific focus on this issue and for recognising and using Hodges' model. I know evidence is important in terms of the tools we use, but you've demonstrated that tools can have a legitimate entry point in their adoption and application. You've posed many questions and presented new angles with recommendations too.

Abstract

The current nursing shortage is complicated by the fact not enough students choose nursing to offset the number of nurses who are nearing retirement. This is distressing to the profession, and is of particular interest to nursing schools. This quantitative, descriptive correlational study examined the perceptions of 99 students in grades sixth through twelfth in a public Midwestern school system regarding nursing as a career choice, 41 current students in the local community college’s nursing program, and recruiting methods that would or did most influence them. The framework for the study is Brian Hodge's Health Career Model. Students were surveyed using a Likert-scale tool with demographics and comments. Descriptive statistics included frequency tables, cross tabulations, chi squared, and confidence intervals. Comments were grouped for qualitative phenomenologic purposes. Findings indicated statistically significant differences in perceptions of students based on sex and grade which could be used to enhance recruitment efforts.

Research Questions

Specific research questions pertaining to this study are:

1. Are middle and high school students in a Midwestern community considering nursing as a career choice?
a. If so, what are the reasons?
b. If not, what are the reasons?
c. What recruitment strategies would most influence these students to decide on nursing as a career choice?
d. What recruitment strategies would most influence these students to seek their education at the Midwestern community college ADN program?

2. Of currently enrolled students in a Midwestern community college ADN program:
a. What recruitment strategies most influenced these students to decide on nursing as a career choice?
b. What recruitment strategies most influenced these students to seek their education at the Midwestern community college ADN program?

Theoretical Framework

The framework for this study is Brian Hodges’ Health Career Model (Hodges, 1997). This model looks at the nurse as an individual whose practice depends on his/her education and past experiences (Hodges, 1997). The model is composed of two intersecting lines that look at the nurse’s attributes both individually and in group settings, and his/her ability to perform job duties both interpersonal and mechanical (Hodges, 1997). Within the four quadrants then, Hodges identifies four major areas of knowledge necessary to practice nursing (Hodges, 1997).

This particular framework lends itself to this study as it looks at traits of individuals who are nurses and helps to explain how their background and knowledge influence the care they give. Hodges writes “the health career is influenced by personal factors of the individual of physical or psychological origin and factors relating to the social world and the policies that govern daily life” (Hodges, pp 1, 1997). Because some of these attributes or interest in these knowledge areas must be present in order for an individual to choose nursing, the model is appropriate to the study.