Tuesday 13 September 2016

Day Activity Centres Annual Art Exhibition – ‘Together We Travel’ opens this week

Southland residents will soon be treated to an array of unique and original artworks including mixed media, paintings, drawings, stone carvings, leatherwork and sculptures at this years’ Day Activity Centres annual art exhibition held in the Community Gallery at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery.

The art exhibition “Together We Travel” run by Southern District Health Boards, Mental Health Addictions and Intellectual Disability Services, Day Activity Centres launches on Friday 16th September, with all the art work created by individuals who are on the road to recovery from mental distress.

“Together We Travel” celebrates the connections and relationships necessary to maintaining wellness. People attending the centres speak of a feeling of kinship, shared understandings, and of the importance of feeling part of the community.

Southland has three Day Activity Centres 2onQ and Rata House in Invercargill, and Welcome In, which is located in Gore. People attending the Centres have the opportunity to participate in programmed activities designed to enhance wellness, including art programmes such as painting, drawing, bone carving, woodwork, music and Oamaru stone carving.

Art Tutor at 2onQ (formerly 494D) Sheree Gutsell, has a lived experience of mental distress and credits the opportunity to be creative as playing a vital role in her recovery.

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"Art classes allowed me to express myself in a safe environment, socialise with like- minded people and gave me the chance to succeed at goals that I had set myself.”

These successes increased Sheree’s self-confidence and well-being so she was better able to take control over other aspects of her life. She has been the art tutor at 2onQ for eight years and feels privileged to work alongside others as they explore their creativity.

"My understandings of mental distress and the creative process have allowed me to build strong and authentic relationships with the artists in art class and well able to support the artists as they work towards participating in our annual exhibition."

Passionate about the role creativity can play in recovery, Sheree was a mentee of the 2015 Art Access Leadership programme and attended the MHS conference in Canberra in August 2015. A highlight of the conference was a symposium on creativity in recovery.

"It is extremely gratifying to me that the benefits of the strong arts’ programme offered by the Day Activity Centres are being backed up by international research and I lucky enough to be part of the discussion that identifies best practice in this area and develops ideas to transform best practice into reality".

Also on display will be the three Fibre Octave entries and some collaborative artworks which allow a wide range of people to participate in the exhibition at a level they feel comfortable with.

The Exhibition will run for a month from 16th September and closes to the public on Sunday, 16th October, 2016.

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