SOMEONE YOU KNOW LIVES WITH A MENTAL ILLNESS.
One in four adults lives with a mental health condition, yet this common illness often remains hidden behind a wall of secrecy and isolation. Mindful: Exploring Mental Health Through Art – Contemporary Craft’s socially engaged art experience – breaks down societal stigmas and offers an opportunity to encounter and understand mental health through the lens of contemporary craft. Featuring a series of exhibitions, innovative community engagement and education opportunities, and a diverse series of programs and events, Mindful reaches beyond the gallery walls to examine creativity’s role in mental health, resiliency, and compassion.
Featuring more than 30 works created by 14 contemporary artists, the project’s main exhibition, Mindful: Exploring Mental Health Through Art, explores the impact that mental illness is having on society, and the role the arts can play to both encourage positive self-expression and guide effective mental health promotion and treatment. Mindful examines creative responses to mental health conditions through the inclusion of artworks made by artists who have been diagnosed with or affected by mental illness. The show highlights a variety of techniques and forms that include innovative art expressions rooted in traditional craft materials, as well as art that explores unexpected relationships between craft and painting, sculpture, conceptual, and installation art.
Educational programming and resources, such as lectures, several companion exhibitions, artist demonstrations, tours, workshops, a curriculum guide for schools, an illustrated exhibition catalogue with essays by national scholars, and a free hands-on art activity developed by an artist will give visitors of all ages an opportunity to connect with many unique individuals and gain a deeper understanding of mental health. Following the significant impact of the organization’s 2014 exhibition, ENOUGHViolence: Artists Speak Out, Contemporary Craft will once again establish innovative partnerships with community organizations and advocacy cohorts to bring their resources and influence to bear on mental health topics related to intervention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Download the Exhibition Catalogue
Mindful: Exploring Mental Health through Art has travelled to:
Mindful at the Gallery at Penn College
August 16, 2018 – October 11, 2018
Williamsport, PA
Mindful at the Fuller Craft Museum
November 15, 2017 – April 22, 2018
Brockton, MA
Mindful at Kaddatz Galleries and Lake Region Arts Council, McKnight Gallery
August 14, 2017 – October 7, 2017
Fergus Falls, MN
Mindful at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
January 27, 2017 – April 17, 2017
Mindful: Exploring Mental Health Through Art is made possible by the Mary Hillman Jennings Foundation, the Staunton Farm Foundation,The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Fisher Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation,The Fine Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, PNC Charitable Trust, the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, the Carlow University Grace Ann Geibel Institute for Justice and Social Responsibility, and media sponsors NEXTpittsburgh, WESA, and WYEP. Additional support is provided by the Allegheny Regional Asset District, the Elizabeth R. Raphael Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
