Work		Art and culture		Therapy		Report of a ASF-volunteer

Work

All residents have a daily job on Granly. The variety of activities and workshops has been adapted to the capacities of the residents. Not the quantity of products is essential, but the quality is.
It is vital that the workers have an experience of the working process – for something to grow through our effort and contact with the material.
Mainly natural ingredients and materials are being used. Craftsmanship, design and color are important elements in our work.

The weavery uses wool, cotton and linen as ground materials. The cloth that is woven is made into tablecloth, towels, curtains, clothes and toy animals.

In the basket workshop, baskets of divers sizes and shapes are being made, often on pre-order.

The garden & herbal workshop.
In the garden, one-year flowers and herbs are being grown. The herbs are nursed in the greenhouse and later are planted in open air. During winter in the herbal workshop, herbs and flowers are dried and processed into herbal and tee blends. Also ointments are being made. All products are ecological.

Added to these regulars are the season related activities, such as making candles, conserving berries and fruits, sawing firewood, wood chopping and wood labor.

Art and culture up

Art and culture have a very important place in the long history of Granly. Especially music and eurhythmy (a sort of dance art) have a long and deep rooted tradition in Granly. Many of the residents play a musical instrument and have regular music lessons. The lyre orchestra plays at Sunday services and yearly holidays and is being invited time and again to play concerts in the region. Also, the communal singing of Norwegian folksong treasures is nurtured. And Granly’s residents also develop themselves as an audience. Regularly, concerts are being arranged or visited elsewhere.

The theater group is always working on new projects. Often, the yearly celebrations offer the opportunity for stage plays. Over the years, many smaller and larger plays have been studied, from fairytales and legends to ‘Peer Gynt’ and ‘the Magic Flute’.

Creative activities inspire, broaden the horizon of experience and offer possibilities for inner development and the stretching of boundaries. Whether it be in music, painting or drama, the residents often surprise both themselves and the audience with their creativity and possibilities of expression.

Therapy up

There are several factors that contribute to the reality that the residents of Granly are seldom sick and excel in an all round state of wellbeing: a healthy diet, a life build on regularity, daily walks, creative activities and manual tasks have been part of their life ever since they were children.

In the narrow therapeutical sense, medical and creative therapies are being used that are based on the anthroposophical view of human beings. Therapies such as curative eurhythmy (a movement therapy), baths with etheric oils (developed by Werner Junge), rhythmical massage, singing and painting therapies, support the medical care. Both traditional and anthroposophical care is being used.