"Art Heals" | Tim A Shaw on bringing awesome art to mental health units.

The Art and Happiness Project

You thought amazing contemporary art belonged to galleries and penthouses? Think again.

Tim A Shaw, the founder of UK based charity Hospital Rooms challenges the idea of what and who art is for. Hospital Room commission world-class artists to make extraordinary artworks for mental health units.

They turn drab and depressing places into beautiful environments. They believe in the power of art to provide joy and dignity and to stimulate heal 🔉.

❓We all know someone struggling with mental health: What can art and creativity do for them? What and who is art is for? How can art change the stigma of mental health illness and institutions? How can art provide joy and dignity to stimulate and heal?

✊🎨 🙂 I loved speaking with Tim. He's kind, thoughtful, compassionate and very smart. He's fully driven by his mission to transform the experience of mental health patients through art.

This is important, inspiring and beautiful.

In this conversation we discuss:

• breaking the boundaries between the art world and mental health institutions
• the experience of being a mental-health patiens and the impact of engaging with art and the Hospital Rooms work.
• the process and challenges of making art for high-risk environments, the importance of participation
• the impact that these projects have on patients, their relationship to the world and to themselves.
• measuring the efficierncy of the projects
• growing the partnerships between art world and (mental ) health care everywhere.

You can find Hospital Rooms on Instagram and Twitter. Visit their website here.

AHP is on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Visit our website for info and contact here.

Credits: Sound Engineering: Raphael Pazoumian