The Big Reveal
"Common Ground: Finding Connections within our Human Struggle" art exhibition to open April 5
It’s hard to believe, but the culmination of the “Common Ground: Finding Connections Within Our Human Struggles” collaboration between FACEing Mental Illness, SRQ Strong and the Spaaces Art Gallery is just two weeks away!
On Friday, April 5, from 6-8 p.m. at the gallery, 2051 Princeton St. in Sarasota, we invite you to attend the opening exhibition of the artworks created by our 12 creative teams. In recent weeks, these professional/community artist duos have been putting the final touches on their pieces, pricing their artwork and crafting their artist statements and bios. The show will be installed next weekend and, after the opening party on April 5, will hang at the gallery through April 26.
We’re so excited to share with you the originality, diversity and thoughtfulness of these collaborations, as well as the impact participating in the project has had on the artists’ lives and understanding of the commonalities we all share in our mental health journeys.
To that end, on April 9, from 6-7:30 p.m., we’ll also be having a Zoom panel discussion with two of the artist teams — Wojtek Sawa/Brenda Robinson and Christy Gahagan/Erika Schlunk — who will share more about the creative process behind their work and their emotional explorations over the course of the project.
The panel discussion will be part of the Giving Challenge fundraising event and you’ll have opportunities throughout the presentation to make donations to support the organizations involved in this project. You can register for the Zoom at Eventbrite.
We are so grateful to those who have supported this unique collaboration, whether with a donation or an encouraging word about the posts we’ve shared here while taking you along on our artistic journey. And the greatest thanks go to our hard-working and dedicated artists, all of whom have donated their time and enthusiasm — even when they weren’t quite sure what they were getting into!
With this project, our goal has been to use art as a vehicle to explore, educate and inform; to reduce stereotypes and misconceptions about mental health challenges; and to find the commonalities that bind us all, regardless of diagnosis. In doing so, we are building a more supportive, inclusive community where having a brain disorder carries no stigma or shame and where we realize our shared connections are greater than our perceived differences.
We hope you’ll join us for both the exhibition opening on April 5 at the gallery and the online discussion April 9. By doing so, you too will become an advocate and ally for facilitating more open conversations about mental health and building a network of support for all those who struggle emotionally.
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