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The Mental Health Association incorporates art therapy and arts-based initiatives to promote the overall well-being of the people we serve, and to raise awareness and reduce stigma surrounding mental illness. Expressive arts support mental health and wellness for both the artist and the viewer by promoting empathy, insight, and self-expression. The arts foster safe dialogue about challenging topics, social justice issues, or traumatic events.* The act of creation helps us to assign meaning to our experiences and reminds us that we are not alone.
Decades of life experience, distilled into a single image.
Photo Voice – Moments in Time is made possible through the partnership of The Mental Health Association and Aging in Montclair. With special thanks to Montclair Public Library for hosting these workshops and the group exhibit. This exhibit is curated by Intensive Family Support Services, (IFSS) and its team of graduate art therapy interns.
Photo Voice is a process by which people can identify and represent their community’s strengths, concerns, and unique perspective. Two groups comprised of family members from Intensive Family Support Services (IFSS) and local residents from AIM participated in a series of 6 workshops designed to explore the experience of growing older. Through discussion, art making, and writing practice, their resulting work illustrates themes of Time, Acceptance, Freedom, Awareness, and more.
Enhanced by personal statements, this exhibit of 15 photographs was on view at the Montclair Public Library in 2022, in observance of Family Caregiver’s Month.
Life may never be the same after trauma hits, but beauty and meaning can emerge from the breakage, if you are willing to do the work. During these uncertain times, when much may seem broken, or in jeopardy, these artists hope you will take inspiration from their own process and reflections about this broken bowl work.
Borrowing upon the centuries old, Japanese practice of Kintsugi, or golden joinery, these artists found new meaning after loss. By intentionally breaking a ceramic object, assigning meaning to each broken element, and joining the pieces back together, each artist created an object that is uniquely transformed, and beautifully whole.
The MHA Inside Out Project Group Action is part of a Ted Prize winning, global, participatory art project by artist JR. The portraits of hope and resilience in our group action seek to change the conversation surrounding mental illness. Our exhibit consists of 31 larger than life sized photographic portraits of individuals who have been impacted by mental illness.
Mental illness can wreak havoc on a daughter’s life with the force of a natural disaster. The experience can also be transformative, summoning empathy, resilience, and untapped wisdom.
My Mother’s Keeper is a multi-media exhibit about women living with mental illness as seen through the eyes of their daughters and includes work by 21 artists from across the United States and Canada. This traveling exhibit was developed through a partnership of MHA’s Intensive Family Support Services and The Creativity Caravan’s co-founders Amy Tingle and Maya Stein.
*Stuckey, H. L., & Nobel, J. (2010). The connection between art, healing, and public health: a review of current literature. American journal of public health, 100(2), 254–263. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.156497
Any contribution makes possible the enhancement of all our programs for the benefit of those we serve.
