Gem News
People and Places
Liz Hall
A creative project using paintings and artefacts with
people with long term mental health problems.
The
Education Section of Nottingham City Museums has recently completed
a project working with people with long term mental health problems.
The project People and Places, worked with four groups in the
community for a period of six weeks, preparing and planning for
a Victorian Garden Party to be held at Newstead Abbey.
What has proved to be most productive from the project are the benefits people have experienced in the close association of objects and the creative process - these forming bridges of communication which can help to bypass or dampen current mental disturbances. People who are dealing with a long term mental health issue are constantly facing complex difficulties in coping with everyday situations that others may take for granted. Relationships with family and friends may have broken down and forming new contacts may be very difficult. They may experience periods of confusion, obsessional behaviour or voice hearing which may severely impede the ability to concentrate and communicate appropriately. Any physiological problem may be further exacerbated by possible side effects from drugs used in the treatment of some mental health conditions. Likewise society's response is more inclined to alienate and stigmatise behaviour which it does not find acceptable.
It was in an attempt to meet the very specific needs of this traditionally non-user group that the project was formulated. A lot of work has been done in museums and galleries concerning access for people with a physical disability but less provision exists for people with learning difficulties or for people with mental health problems. But just as we have a responsibility to provide physical ramps for people, we must consider the psychological ramps needed if we are to show commitment to equal opportunities and equal rights of access.
The Outreach Section had already been working with this particular client group for approximately two years and it has been obvious since our first contacts in 1993 that a gradual build up of trust and confidence is essential for any beneficial outcomes to take place. There are few immediate returns and to expect them sets both the group and ourselves up to fail. After several one-off projects within the security of the group's own centre and initial social and workshop based visits to the Castle Museum, it seemed appropriate to consider a more structured project in which people could commit themselves to a longer and more practical involvement with the City Museums.
This opportunity arose when a small amount of funding became available through the City Council to develop our work with adults with long term mental health problems. The aims of the project were to further develop our existing contacts with the groups while introducing them to the other museums within the city group, extending their social contact with other staff and arts workers and to give people a sense of working together towards a final goal. It seemed suitable for that goal to be a special party given in their honour - an experience which was, perhaps, out of the ordinary for this particular group of people.
The project consisted of four sessions. The first session took place in their Centre and was an introduction to what like might have been like in Victorian times - how people would have dressed, eaten and how they would have entertained themselves. We also introduced the idea of the party and outlined the other preparatory sessions.
The second session, which took place in the Castle Museum and Costume Museum, looked at costume. Using the resources of paintings, collections and handling materials, the groups made their own accessories for the party. For the last session before the party we went to Newstead Abbey itself, familiarized ourselves with the site of the party and made butter and table decorations in the great kitchen. The party itself took place in a flower festooned marquee in the gardens at Newstead with food, drinks, Victorian style entertainments and a professional photographer who recorded the event for each group in a sepia print.
Each part of the project focused heavily on looking at visual images and handling objects, and this provided people with an extremely effective stimulus for group interaction. Simply passing an object amongst the group provided an opportunity for people to practise the most basic but essential skills such as turn taking, communication, listening and valuing other people's opinions. Investigating images or talking about how objects were made provided the seeds of ideas about making objects themselves.
The physical use of objects and the effect of memory can 'root' someone who may be experiencing some form of mental disruption. In one of the early sessions of the project the group were looking at Victorian artefacts. One man had remained on the outskirts of the group and was responding angrily to his voices which would not stay quiet. Someone passed him a school merit medal which attracted his attention because he too had been awarded a medal for his achievement in his school. This was too positive a memory to let pass and he was able to tell his voices to back off and let him have some time to remember. Using reminiscence with elderly people with Alzheimer's has the similar effect of 'bypassing' the current mental disturbances to access memory that was laid down before the onset of the illness. Another example is the focus practical activity can provide for people hearing voices. By concentrating on making, voices can sometimes be shut out for a while, allowing the person a degree of control over their situation. Through active making-experiences we can learn to ask questions about objects and start to investigate our present and past.
We can investigate objects, ask pertinent questions about their manufacture, social and material implications and so on and this approach can be used to talk with a group about work they have made and to help place their activity in a context. We could then go on to use the same process with historical objects, hopefully with a greater understanding of a process and a structure. When people find it very hard to think strategically about any aspect of their lives, it is important to provide a structure for them to work within.
One of the activities that we worked on in an early session in the museum was making masks based on the Circle of Life gallery. We looked at the different examples of masks and body adornment from around the world and I tried to get the group to develop their thinking about the objects we had seen but it wasn't until we had made our masks and had used that process of questioning - Why did we make masks? What material did we use and why? - that they were able to see the relevance of asking questions about other objects.
People and Places was a successful blend of investigating, making and celebrating in some cases considerable achievement by the user group, and we have certainly created a new audience. We must now respond to the needs and expectations of this group and develop a service which provides continual access, rather than one which is restricted to the timescale of a particular project. We are currently working with professional staff involved in provision for adults with mental health problems in Nottingham to determine ways of developing better links. As yet we are unsure how to go about it and what impact this may have on our regular service, the museum and gallery itself and our traditional audiences. We must however move closer to a more integrated provision for this user group, which will allow a more equal right of access to our shared material and visual culture.
A video of the People and Places project is available at a cost of 5GBP including postage and packing. Cheques should be made payable to Nottingham City Council. Please apply to...
Education Section
Castle Museum
Nottingham
NG1 6EL.
© Group for Education in Museums 1996
First published in GEM News Spring 1996