The Lightbox in Woking, Surrey, opened in 2007, but during the years spent planning the museum, we began to get involved with mental health issues.
Our approach to the museum was thematic rather than chronological, and one of the themes is Brookwood Hospital (formerly Brookwood Asylum), which had had profound influence on the development of the local community.
With the help of Surrey History Centre, we started to archive documents, but we also wanted to talk to people.
We contacted current and former staff at the hospital, as well as former patients, and it became apparent that in order to put Brookwood into context, we had to look not only at the history of the hospital but also the treatment of mental health.
So that is what our exhibition became. We also commissioned the artist Rachel Gadsden to work with a group of people with mental health issues to produce a collective artwork expressing their hopes and fears, which has become a permanent part of the mental health exhibition.
We decided to build on this experience with a major three-year project and exhibition, Ways of Seeing.
Through our relationship with Cornerhouse, the local nexus for mental health organisations, and mental health charity Mind, we worked with a group of people with mental health issue. They spent several months with our curator looking at more than 100 pictures, prints and sculptures that form part of the Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art housed at the Lightbox, before deciding which they might like to respond to artistically.
We then put on trips to exhibitions across the region, looking at all the elements of art exhibitions, from layout to captioning to text panels.
An artist and a print-maker were employed to work with the participants on their artworks, each in response to a particular work in the collection. Finally, with a great deal of input from the participants, we mounted the exhibition in our main gallery, combining many major works from the Ingram Collection and the participants’ artistic responses.
The exhibition was a great success with both the public and the participants, some of whom talked about it as having changed their lives.
Along the way we learned a number of lessons:
We have followed up this initiative with a series of other projects with people with mental health issues.
Participants have worked on creative writing in response to objects connected with mental health treatment, with the work then being edited and in some cases transformed into song, the results being performed at a cabaret involving the local drama group.
Working with the Happy Museum Project, we also ran a smaller version of Ways of Seeing, called Landscapes of the Mind, which gave even more control to the participants. And we went on to develop a programme of events with early-stage dementia sufferers.
Finally, we have come to see that the Lightbox exists primarily to foster the wellbeing of the community through art and heritage, with mental health in its widest meaning at the core of the enterprise; that is becoming our emerging identity.
Rib Davis is the special projects manager at the Lightbox
Our approach to the museum was thematic rather than chronological, and one of the themes is Brookwood Hospital (formerly Brookwood Asylum), which had had profound influence on the development of the local community.
With the help of Surrey History Centre, we started to archive documents, but we also wanted to talk to people.
We contacted current and former staff at the hospital, as well as former patients, and it became apparent that in order to put Brookwood into context, we had to look not only at the history of the hospital but also the treatment of mental health.
So that is what our exhibition became. We also commissioned the artist Rachel Gadsden to work with a group of people with mental health issues to produce a collective artwork expressing their hopes and fears, which has become a permanent part of the mental health exhibition.
We decided to build on this experience with a major three-year project and exhibition, Ways of Seeing.
Through our relationship with Cornerhouse, the local nexus for mental health organisations, and mental health charity Mind, we worked with a group of people with mental health issue. They spent several months with our curator looking at more than 100 pictures, prints and sculptures that form part of the Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art housed at the Lightbox, before deciding which they might like to respond to artistically.
We then put on trips to exhibitions across the region, looking at all the elements of art exhibitions, from layout to captioning to text panels.
An artist and a print-maker were employed to work with the participants on their artworks, each in response to a particular work in the collection. Finally, with a great deal of input from the participants, we mounted the exhibition in our main gallery, combining many major works from the Ingram Collection and the participants’ artistic responses.
The exhibition was a great success with both the public and the participants, some of whom talked about it as having changed their lives.
Along the way we learned a number of lessons:
- Don’t expect the participants to come to you, you need to go to them.
- Don’t expect the participants to sign up for a long project – break it up into little bits and ask if they would like to come along to each as they arise.
- Be flexible and accept that attendance will fluctuate.
- Provide lunch and pay travel expenses in advance if necessary.
- Have one member of staff present at all the sessions throughout the project, providing a feeling of reliable stability for the participants.
- Do not ask about the participants’ mental health problems, but understand that once trust is established many will talk about them.
- Make it clear that this work is not art therapy.
- Make sure all staff at the organisation receive mental health awareness training, even those not working directly on the project.
- Give as much control and genuine decision making as possible to the participants.
We have followed up this initiative with a series of other projects with people with mental health issues.
Participants have worked on creative writing in response to objects connected with mental health treatment, with the work then being edited and in some cases transformed into song, the results being performed at a cabaret involving the local drama group.
Working with the Happy Museum Project, we also ran a smaller version of Ways of Seeing, called Landscapes of the Mind, which gave even more control to the participants. And we went on to develop a programme of events with early-stage dementia sufferers.
Finally, we have come to see that the Lightbox exists primarily to foster the wellbeing of the community through art and heritage, with mental health in its widest meaning at the core of the enterprise; that is becoming our emerging identity.
Rib Davis is the special projects manager at the Lightbox
