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The Art, Culture and Mental Health work in Bergen focuses on people´s resources, interests and potential.

An essential aim of the project is to involve creative and performing artists in work for and with individuals with mental health disorders. The target group includes persons with severe or minor mental disorders. Reducing the prevalence of prejudices about mental disorders in general is also a central task.

One of the primary aims is to stimulate increased participation in art and the arts by former and current mental patients. At the same time we seek to make available to the participants experiences, opportunities for involvement and exhibition of their creative work in various art forms.

Work in Art, Culture and Mental Health takes place in the area between mental health and art. We receive feedback that primary focus on the artistic viewpoint gives participants the feeling that their identity as patients takes a back seat, and this in itself is inclined to give people with mental disorders greater dignity. This applies both to the way they regard themselves and the way the world around encounters them – the view of society at large.

The focus on resources, interests and opportunities is well received, and we find that it is vital that participants are taken seriously as regards their interests – in exactly the same way as with anyone who chooses to participate in a course or an activity.

See a short film presentation of Art, Culture and Mental Health here, a lecture we gave at XIV World Congress of World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (WAPR) and 7th Abu Dhabi International Mental Health Conference 9-11 December, 2021.

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