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Description of initiative
Living Museum Madrid is part of the original movement created by psychologist and artist Janos Marton and artist Bolek Greczynski in the early 1980s in New York. The Living Museum project established a space dedicated to art on the campus of Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital. Today, the Living Museum movement is present in more than 20 countries, including some in the USA, Switzerland, Korea, Georgia, the Netherlands and Germany.
Living Museum is presented as a space for artistic work that promotes the creative and professional development of people with mental disorders and/or disabilities and with an interest in artistic creation. Its main focus is art, promoting the development of personal artistic projects as a support for the empowerment, inclusion and recovery of people with mental health problems, and eliminating the stigma that the label of mental disorder and/or disability represents in our society.
The artistic workshops are based on the Open Studio methodology and are characterised as open, safe and stress-free artistic spaces, adapted to the individual needs and rhythms of each artist. Living Museum seeks to provide an environment where artists feel professionally recognised, and where their work and creative experimentation is valued.
Living Museum Madrid is also a space for socialisation through art, where dialogue and the exchange of artistic experiences is encouraged, where life narratives are generated and the creation of support networks is promoted through art.
From October 2023 to June 2024, Living Museum Madrid has carried out the First Artistic Residencies with the participation of 15 artists. These residencies have taken place at the Centro de Cultura Contemporánea Condeduque in Madrid, ending with the group exhibition El Despliegue de la Pausa (The Deployment of the Pause). This creative space will continue next year, extending the residencies to a total of 20 artists.
Living Museum Madrid is currently focused on establishing alliances with other artistic entities of a similar nature, and among its main objectives is to achieve a permanent location and stable funding that will allow for its growth and continuity in its work of inclusion and empowerment through art.
Themes: Culture and...
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Results, benefits, impact and lessons learnt
This kind of project provides personal and social support for people with mental illness who show artistic interests through the following ways:
- An environment that invites experimentation and personal creative development:
The physical space, created as an artistic installation encourages the relationship with the location, materials and support that the person may need. Its organisation in artistic spaces or personal studios helps to identify and develop a sense of belonging.
Symbolic space, it is important to develop a routine regarding artistic creation in an environment of acceptance and trust. The creation of a shared space with other people focused on their own creation serves as a source of inspiration for personal development and the construction of new identities through art.
- The project is defined under the concepts of free, open, safe and flexible:
The dynamic of freedom and dynamism encourages independence and autonomy in the space, where people have the opportunity to experience their creative, personal and social limits in a safe and caring space through art.
- This structure is based on the premises of no stress and no hierarchy:
This reality allows for the creation of a trusting space that is adapted to individual needs and also takes into account the conditions of the disease.
The premise of non-hierarchy underlines the existence of power relations that affect mental health, providing an environment of critical reflection, care and mental health and is especially important from a gender perspective.
- Living Museum focuses on the development of an identity as an artist or creative person:
The concepts of rehabilitation and recovery are associated with the search for a new life purpose through art.
- Living Museum builds its nature as a supportive community and family structure:
The network of support through art emerges as a space of empowerment and belonging and develops every day through conversations about art, sharing spaces and various art