Project title
Description of initiative
Manicómio is the first art outsider studio in Portugal. Located in Lisbon at a creative cowork space, it brings together artists who have or have had mental health issues, with professionals from the creative sector and companies. Manicómio it is also a design studio (the Agencia Manicómio) in which all the creatives have suffered and suffer from mental illness. Manicómio is a 20 year-old fight for honesty, dignity and recognition of artists who are excluded by the art world simply because of their mental health history and stigma. Besides art work and exhibitions, Manicómio mentors their artists to other creative and commercial ventures, such as advertisement, illustration, jewelry and media. It is a space of human, social, financial and aesthetic dignity
Themes: Culture and...
Keywords
Target group
Cultural field
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Results, benefits, impact and lessons learnt
Manicómio started in the beginning of 2019 and since then they had very positive impact, both in outcomes and outputs:
Outputs:
- total participants: 100, with 15 resident artists
- number of artwork produced: around 1000 pieces
- number of art exhibitions: 15, with about 50.000 visitors
- number of partnerships: 25
- number of press articles: around 100
Outcomes:
They started measuring impact in 2020 and they are going to publish the first results by the end of 2022. So far this is what they have:
- resident artists: overall increase of well-being and happiness, with almost no mental health crisis; increase of self-esteem;
- resident artists: overall increase of revenue streams
- resident artists: what they love the most about Manicómio is that there is no psychological pressure, they have freedom of creation, and the support in artistic mentorship, exhibition and sales;
The main key lesson is that their methodology, that is focused on the person (human rights approach), can work effectively not only with arts, but with any area or age.