A FREE art exhibition featuring works created by people with mental health issues and disabilities will be on show in Mono café bar in Glasgow from 16 – 29 November 2010.
The Project Ability exhibition will display art works created by service users from Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board’s Community Adult Mental Health Team’s care groups for Castlemilk and Waterside – and the quality of the works on display and the beneficial impact it has had on the lives of the artists are plain for all too see.
The exhibition marks the culmination of a ten-month project run by Project Ability artists, Iona Grey and Susan Bryson, in conjunction with occupational therapists and health care assistants with the aims of promoting social contact for people with mental health issues and disabilities within a supported structure and acting as a stepping stone into more mainstream activity.
Iona Grey said: “This exhibition will showcase a range of striking art works of a remarkable quality given that no art skills are necessary to join this art group as these skills are developed in the process of attendance.”
Amongst the skills learned within the art group and featured in the exhibition are: collographs; linoprints; batik; acrylic canvas painting; patterning; glass fusion; silk painting; drawings and dry point printing
Asked to describe what the art group meant to her, one service user said: “It makes me confront my fear and helps with my confidence. When I’m at the art group I feel that I’m achieving something.
“Coming here has given me confidence to do other things, like go the shops and try other groups – this is huge for me.”
Another said: “It gives me structure, exercises my brain and makes me feel I can be creative.
“It makes me feel good and builds my confidence. It makes me feel like a productive member of society and a worthwhile person. It’s making me feel young again – it’s like a stepping stone into education. It’s a way to deal with stuff that words don’t manage; it’s a way to feel alive and be alive.”
Fiona Brown, occupational therapist at Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board’s Community Adult Mental Health Team in Castlemilk, said: “This exhibition clearly shows the difference the art group makes to the lives of service users.”
Project Ability is a Glasgow-based visual arts organisation which creates opportunities for people with disabilities and people with mental health issues to express themselves and achieve artistic excellence.
The Project Ability art exhibition takes place at Mono café bar at 12 Kings Court, Glasgow, G1 5RB from 16 – 29 November 2010.
ENDS
For further information please contact Fiona Brown Occupational Therapist on 0141 634 5430
Issued on behalf of Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board’s Community Adult Mental Health Team by Liquorice Media tel 0141 561 4018 www.liquorice-media.com
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