Mindful Arts is a community arts initiative that works with people with mental illness in the Regent Park area to build artistic skills while fostering strong and more equitable relationships through artistic processes. Mindful Arts provides art classes, brings in visiting artists and facilitates outings to other creative places, to nurture self-expression and exploration through a variety of diff
erent mediums and spaces. The artistic process, rather than the outcome, is emphasized, with recognition that this process can be used as a means for stress relief and a chance to open new avenues of communication among individuals. Mental illness can be a very alienating illness, both through its symptoms and through its accompanying social stigma. Through collective creative experiences, both people within and outside the community are able to come together as a community, to share experience and knowledge. This kind of collaboration requires creative, positive and accessible space in which people can meet. Mindful Arts holds this kind of space by fostering mutual respect, inclusivity and growth among community members, and within the art room. Mutual respect occurs through collaboration between community members, artists and organizations, in which everyone brings something unique to the table, recognizes and appreciates the value of what has been brought, and takes something different, and of equal value away. Growth is an inevitable outcome in this exchange; community members learn new skills and techniques, and artists and creative organizations are able to engage in a personal process of destigmatization of mental illness. Inclusivity is maintained through open communication, and active participation of community members in decision-making processes, and through an understanding that everyone is welcome! Thus, through active community engagement: partnering with professional artists, art galleries and community organizations, we foster relationships which further public awareness of, and exposure to mental illness, and thus, ensure that every voice is heard and valued, so that Regent Park residents are given the opportunity to thrive!
