2nd October 2006

Drawing from experience

Nottingham Community Housing Association (NCHA) in collaboration with the Hostel Liaison Group (HLG) and Rethink are organising an art exhibition at the Angel Row Library in support of Mental Health Week.The exhibition will run from 2nd - 14th October, with a launch party on the 5th October at 12.30pm.

Mental Health week is aimed at raising awareness of mental health problems and encouraging people to look after their own mental health.All contributing artists have experienced mental health problems and have used their art as an outlet for their emotions.Their art works may also give other people a clearer picture of what life is like for someone who is, or has been affected by mental illness.

Exhibition organiser Michelle Parrish says Art has represented a form of therapy for many. Not only is art very cathartic for people with mental illness, but they also get somewhere else in their art that other people are too inhibited to reach.I know how art can have an enormously liberating effect.It can really help people through the bad times.

Mental health is very topical at the moment with many documentaries aired on T.V including Stephen Frys documentary about manic depression on BBC2.Whilst this goes a long way to raising awareness of mental health on a national scale, local community-based events such as these raise awareness on a more accessible level.It affords people with mental health problems to break away from the stigma and for members of the community to think about their own mental health and of others around them.

Service user/illustrator Clement says Art can help people make sense of their feelings and whats gone on in their lives.Look at some of the women who have experienced domestic violence.They get out there and tell people what they have been through, that takes strength.I just want to be able to do that and keep straight.Now Im doing this kind of work I feel able to justify my existence.