The artist teams of the “Common Ground” project met for a second time in early December as they continued to develop their creative ideas for our exhibition next April. After some shuffling and shifting of participants, we are happy to confirm we will have about 13 partnerships contributing to our spring show at the Spaaces Art Gallery next April!
Several partners have already begun to meet or talk regularly to explore the commonalities in their mental health journeys and brainstorm ideas about how to turn those connections into a visual artistic form. One team, in fact, had already met and completed an initial piece! (Enticing foreshadow: It involves a bird cage!)
The meeting began with a reiteration of the mission and vision of the “Common Ground: Finding Connections Within Our Human Struggle” project, a collaboration between FACEing Mental Illness, SRQ Strong and the nonprofit Spaaces Art Gallery: To normalize mental health challenges and reduce stereotypes, misconceptions and discrimination against anyone who has struggled with trauma, emotions, feelings or any diagnosed or undiagnosed mental health condition.
To that end, we’ve matched professional artists and individuals with lived mental health experience and asked them to share their stories, build a relationship and create a collaborative work of art that captures both the challenges and triumphs of maintaining their mental wellbeing.
After some socializing and refreshments, participants were invited to share their initial ideas about their imagined projects. Even at this early conceptual stage, the range and variety was impressive.
One team is envisioning an interactive installation that will allow viewers to participate in experiencing the dichotomy between our outer “facade” and the inner machinations of the mind.
Another team, which includes a participant who is a regular radio host, is planning a multi-sensual project that will involve both audio and vintage family photos to explore a mental health narrative.
The theme for a third partnership was “boxes” — the kind we create in our minds that restrain or inhibit us, and the path to breaking out of them. They’re plotting a three-dimensional piece using repurposed wine or cigar boxes.
At this point in our process, the artist teams will coordinate on their own to arrange meetings to work on their pieces. There is open studio time available to them in the Spaaces gallery in both December and January, as well as access to art supplies they may use in their creations.
As their projects begin to take shape we’ll be visiting the teams individually to introduce you to our participants and document their artistic progress. Next week, we’ll have our first team update — Lori Wiest and Anja Palombo.
All participants in “Common Ground,” including the collaborating organizers, are donating their time to the project. If you’d like to help with the expenses involved in art materials, promotion and exhibition costs, we welcome tax-deductible donations to the SPAACES Art Foundation (nonprofit EIN 84-500-4237). You can donate online at the SPAACES website (https://spaaces.art) or you can send a check to SPAACES, at 2087 Princeton St., Sarasota, FL 34237.
We look forward to your feedback as we begin to share photos and stories with you about our artists and their creations. Please stay tuned!