Art and mental health will join forces at 5:30 tonight at the Venue Fine Arts & Gifts where attendees will be encouraged to create art in order to support mental health and open discussion.
Michelle Martin-Colman, one of the principles at the Venue, will lead the collage activity, an art form that includes the cutting of images from other art and media sources and pasting them into a unique creation that incorporates a unique message.
“What a collage does is it allows a person to look over a vast variety of images and pictures and out of that, to the person looking, certain things jump out,” Martin-Colman said. “The order in which someone puts those images on a page actually reveals a lot about them.”
Martin-Colman said the event aims to encourage those who join to express themselves through art and engage in dialogue as a result.
“We’re creating an opportunity for people to start something that they can finish stress free and it’s totally about themselves,” Martin-Colman said. “It says something when there done.”
The Venue, a contemporary art gallery and store in downtown Bloomington, has organized the event for two years in a row in combination with a variety of other mental health presentations each Tuesday in September as a part of the Venue’s Mental Health Month. September is also National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a movement that promotes awareness of issues surrounding mental health and suicide prevention.
“There’s a whole body of knowledge to using art as a therapy tool for mental health issues,” said Dave Colman, a curator at the Venue. “We’re calling on that body and combing the two at the Venue.”
In addition to encouraging a discussion about mental health and suicide prevention, the collage presentation aims to give its patrons a positive sense of accomplishment, Martin-Colman said.
“There is a sense of satisfaction that comes from doing what you’re good at and doing it until you know you got it right,” Martin-Colman said. “There is a kind of heart-opening feeling from doing one’s best work.”
The event intends to help those with mental health issues as well as to teach others how to interact and help those who are struggling, Martin-Colman said.
“Each of us has the opportunity to positively affect a person’s mental health,” Martin-Colman said. “When one of our friends is in danger, we can talk to them.”
