Art and Mental Health | Seville experience

The museum doors are opened to various social sectors, including minorities. And specifically, museums open their doors to people with mental disorders who, historically had been subject to marginalization and stigma, and therefore excluded from cultural participation. This implies a change of vision and positioning of some institutions and sectors of culture. In doing this, the organizers propose a series seminar-workshop organized in series of six weeks, in which each group, of between ten and fifteen members, attends once a week. Everything starts with a visit to the exhibition halls: in each session, a series of works that have a common link are observed and commented on. It is not a guided tour but rather a work of artistic mediation in which the artistic mediator facilitates the communication established between the work of art and the viewer, respecting and strengthening the point of view of each person and their own expression, trying not to contaminate with a previous speech, mediating so that each group and each person, value and develop their own argument and motivating group communication. Later there is a production part of the workshop: it is the time to create, individually or in groups, from quite open and flexible proposals that have some relationship with what is seen in the room and that promote the connection with the inner and emotional world. It works from different artistic languages, techniques and materials. The proposals can sometimes last more than one session, sometimes interacting with other mental health groups or with groups outside the experience. The sessions end with a group space in which a sharing is carried out in the group based on the works carried out.