Anything Goes Exhibition 2015
It is that time of the year when St Patrick’s University Hospital (SPUH) has now opened entries for the “Anything Goes” Exhibition 2015 again. This will only be and exhibition and not a competition, so all the more reason to relax and get your piece of art to the table. The exhibition is open to all service users and staff who attend SPUH. The exhibition will be hosted at the Art Space at SPUH here in Dublin 8. Service users and staff from Edmundsbury Hospital, Willow Grove and the Dean Clinics are also welcome to enter.
Art is a versatile genre and artists can either enter painting and drawing done with oils, acrylics, water colours and pastels, graphics, pottery and sculpture or mixed media. The theme is “Anything Goes” therefore any art form is acceptable. Artists who have a love for more than one form of art will have an opportunity to enter a maximum of two entries per person. All work must be brought to SPUH at no later date that Friday the 2nd October 2015 before 1pm.
According to research visual and performing arts can help people with bipolar and other mental illnesses. Art therapy can give someone with a mental illness new self-esteem and put them in control of their lives, but it is in no means a substitute for medication or counselling.
The University of Granada in Spain recently performed a study on “art therapy and treatment of mental illness” at the Therapeutic Community of the Northern Area of the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital. A researcher by the name of Elizaberta Perez conducted the study over a period of one year using psychoanalysis principles and studied the behaviour of 20 patients with acute metal health disorders.
“The patients volunteered to take part in the sessions two days a week. During the sessions they adapted paintings of artists like Amedeo Modigliani, Edvard Munch, Vincent Van Gogh, and contributed their own visions. The patients used their paintings to project repressed desires, feelings and emotions from their hearts and minds. During the artistic process, they were able to bring these feelings and emotions to life, or abolish them as they saw fit,” Perez said.
More and more people are relying on art therapy as an alternative to other therapies and feel that they are benefiting hugely by incorporating it in their treatment. Art helps the brain to recover and re-balance itself, but it can also help with the physical and emotional well-being of a person.
Art can help people:
manage behaviour
reduce stress
develop interpersonal skills
increase self-esteem
increase self-awareness
Art therapists can also help address:
emotional difficulties related to disability or illness
post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
physical problems
cognitive problems
neurological problems
For those interested in the “Anything Goes” Exhibition entry forms can be downloaded at: https://www.stpatricks.ie/…/…/Exhibition%20Forms%202015.docx. Hurry up though, as there is only two weeks left to get those art pieces ready for exhibition!
