Gallery Forget Me Not (Gallery Nezabudka)

Country

Slovakia

Project Description

Gallery Forget Me Not was established in Autumn 2004 as a special place exclusively devoted to artists with mental health problems.

The Gallery is located at the League for Mental health (LDZ). The management of LDZ organises exhibitions for the public and media and makes also promotion activities for the Gallery. Within almost 3 years of existence there were 10 exhibitions opened in this Gallery and many workshops organised.

Project Aims

The main goal of the Gallery is to fight the stigmatisation of people with mental illnesses or in the ideal case to overcome stigma through the art work of people with mental health. The second important goal to achieve is social integration: The promotion of talented artists, their exhibitions, use of media in all activities facilitates an easier integration into society. It is important for all people to establish a good position within their own culture, but it is especially important for those who are marginalized by society on the basis of their illness or disability and who do not know how to get through in the art world.

Areas

Education, Leisure

Effectiveness

The idea was to create equal chances for all artistically talented people with mental illness in Slovakia, and especially for visual artists. Not long ago pictures and creations of people with mental illness were seen as vehicles for associations, as a medium of diagnosis and analysis, but only in exceptional cases were they recognized as individual artistic achievements in their own right. Even nowadays people do not see these images primarily as works of art. They consider it as the projected knowledge of illness or their prejudices, but hardly anyone sees the artwork unconditionally.

The opening of the Gallery was in 2004 and since then we arranged 10 exhibitions in Bratislava (140 Slovak artists participated) and 5 in different regions of Slovakia under the name "Gallery Nezabudka on the Road" (250 artists exhibited). There were 5 art therapy workshops and 2 artistic/art therapy symposia during the summer 2005 and 2006. The greatest success is that the exhibitions are widely accessible - for people with mental health problems there are special exhibitions in 6 big cities in Slovakia. Besides regular exhibitions the Gallery serves also as a permanent collection of art work of people with mental health problems, and in the future we plan to meet authors from other countries and to start mutual exchange projects.

Sustainability

The needs of people with mental health problems are very divers. Considering at least one -satisfaction in any activity that leads to a feeling of self-realisation that helps on a way to better mental health - these days there are more and more people interested in participating in an exhibition or any art therapy workshops.

We are happy that we have found a curator who is enthusiastic and eager to support a specific field of art which is called Art Brut among professionals.

The Gallery has one manager. LDZ has one PR manager that also supports the work.

Innovation

Innovative aspects of Gallery practices and methodology are:

• the idea to create equal chances for all artistically talented people with mental illness in Slovakia, and especially for visual artists.
• to recognized individual artists and their art work as achievements in their own right and not in connection with their illness or their prejudices
• to promote accreditation and a higher quality of the art therapy work in Slovakia.

Added Value

One of the most important goals of the project is to support improvement of art therapy in Slovakia. Art therapy integrates the fields of human development, visual art (drawing, painting, sculpture, and other art forms) and the creative process with models of counselling and psychotherapy.

Art therapy is used to assess and treat thefollowing: anxiety, depression and other mental and emotional problems and disorders; mental illness; substance abuse and other addictions; family and relationship issues; abuse and domestic violence; social and emotional difficulties related to disability and illness; trauma and loss; physical, cognitive, and neurological problems; and psychosocial difficulties related to medical illness.

Art therapy programs are found in a number of settings including hospitals, clinics, public and community agencies, wellness centres, educational institutions, businesses, and private practices. Art therapists should be professionals who hold a degree in art therapy or a related field.

Educational requirements in other European countries usually include: theories of art therapy, counselling and psychotherapy; ethics and standards of practice; assessment and evaluation; individual, group, and family techniques; human and creative development; multicultural issues; research methods; and practicum experiences in clinical, community, and/or other settings.

Art therapists in Slovakia are skilled but do not undergo accredited studies or education with any conceptual framework - they have to study abroad or go through various workshops here and there.

Transferability

The Gallery is already inspired by the House of Artists in Vienna, but all of Gallery's projects are very original. It is important is to find a curator who is dealing with "Art Brut" or someone who has a certain experience in the Art scene. The entire project is manageable with local resources: the financial management and human sources. All projects are coordinated by one person - a project manager of the LDZ; one assistant is needed and the help of PR manager. Finally we use subcontracted specialists - art therapists and artists for symposium or workshops; the curator is volunteering.

Funding comes mainly from the Ministry of Culture.

We do not have any guidelines elaborated yet but all the project's elements have very simple ideas and are easy to be replicated.

Mainstreaming Potential

Over the next years we have plans to enriching the Slovakian art scene through exhibitions that display important works by the artists and we will organize exchange shows with other artists. These will comprise several studies, a library, a shop, and we plan to organise a public auction. Thus we will create here a special centre for art following the Vienna Maria Gugging House of Artists example. Here in Slovakia the policy (Ministry of Culture) is supporting some cultural projects that are declaring visibility and representation of our country.

Costs of the Project

It costs 1000 Euros per year.

People involved in the Project

• 1 Project manager responsible for Gallery
• 1 PR manager of LDZ
• 1 Photographer - volunteering
• 1 Professional artist - volunteering
• 5 Art therapists - subcontracted

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Project

Strengths:

The Gallery was launched in joint collaboration of three independent initiatives: LDZ, the Slovak National Gallery and Pfizer. We bear only the administrative expenses for the Gallery.

Weaknesses:

The general sponsor is a pharmaceutical company.

Contact Person for the Project

Katarína Čermáková