Art Collections and Art Therapy

Last update: 4 September 2009,
by Maureen Bell

Library members have online access to a number of journals in this area, including

American Journal of Art Therapy
Arts in Psychotherapy

About Art Brut - Beverley Sue Kaye
Beverly Sue Kaye is a private art dealer who specialises in Art Brut.

About Outsider Art
A collection of Outsider Art Information and works on the web, from Visionary Art.

All In The Mind - 27 January 2002 - Creativity, Brilliance and Madness
All In The Mind - 12 November 2005 - Grandad is an artist! Dementia and the creative mind.
All In The Mind - 11 March 2006 - Outsider art
All In The Mind - 14 October 2006 - Reclaiming imagination: art, psychosis and the creative mind
All In The Mind - 13 October 2007 - Art in the Asylum: orphans of the art world?
All In The Mind - 20 October 2007 - Art in the Asylum: orphans of the art world? Part 2 of 2 (The Prinzhorn Collection)
These are transcripts and audios from All in the Mind, a series on ABC Radio National. Other programs can be found here.

Art + Power Home Page
art + power is a a group of disabled people working together in Bristol. They use their art "to change wrong ideas and attitudes and to show what we can do".

Art Behind Bars
Art Behin Bars is a prison art program in Key West, Florida. Its mission is to contribute to society through the donation of inmate artwork to non-profit organizations locally and nationally.

Art Enables • Outsider Art Inside The Beltway
Art Enables is a program for adults with developmental and/or mental disabilities from throughout the Washington D.C. area.

Art Therapy
A web page by Vicky Barber, a British art therapist.

Art Therapy: Information About Art Therapy and Some of the People Who Are Helped by Art Therapy
A web page by Donna Betts, a Canadian art therapist.

Art Therapy Resources and Links
A page of resources from the American Art Therapy Association.

The Arts and Healing Network
A site with links to a large range of resources, including the works of individual artists, community projects, and bulletin boards.

Arts, Creativity & Mental Health Initiative
Report on the findings of 4 arts therapies trial services that took place in Scotland during 2003-5, by Cathy Wilson and Isabella Goldie. Mental Health Foundation, August 2006.

Arts Access SA
Arts Access SA is a South Australian organisation which promotes access and participation in the arts by all people with disabilities.

Arts in Therapy Network
Established by Chriss Berk (an art therapist with a Master of Art Therapy degree from Hahnemann University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) in 1996. This site provides an extensive list of links on a wide range of creative therapies.

Arts of Life
Arts of Life is a non-profit studio founded in January 2000, in Chicago, to provide a workspace for artists with developmental disabilities.

Arts of Social Responsibility Including Art Therapy
An interesting collection of resources from Artslynx International Arts Resources. Artslynx is intended to be a portal to the best information on the arts available on the web. It is run by Richard Finkelstein, who has been a professor of theatre design for more than 25 years. This section includes art therapy, and arts for people with disabilities.

Arts Project Australia
Arts Project Australia was founded in 1974 with the express purpose of exhibiting the artwork in a manner that accords artists with an intellectual disability the same dignity and respect as other artists.

Audart Gallery, Outsider Art by Audrey Regan, ArtSpeak
An essay by Audrey Reagan, Co-Founder and Director Audart.

Australian and New Zealand Art Therapy Association (ANZATA)
Includes a selection of links of interest for art therapists.

The Awakenings Project
The Awakenings Project is a consumer run organisation which assists people with mental health issues in developing their creative abilities through art in all its forms. It also aims to raise public awareness of the creative talents and contributions of people living with psychiatric disorders.

Borderland Voices
Borderland Voices is an arts and mental health group based in the Staffordshire Moorlands which works with any interested adults.

Carousel: Creative Arts
Carousel, based in Brighton, in the U.K., is a regional and national charity creating opportunities, for children and adults of all ages who have learning disabilities, to participate and train in the creative arts.

Child Abuse Quilts - Revealing and Healing the Pain of Child Abuse
These quilts were made by subscribers to the QuiltArt mailing list and other on-line quilters, from April to October 1998. Each image is accompanied by a comment from the artist.

Community Arts Network: Corrections
A collection of resources on prison art.

Creative Connections: promoting mental health & wellbeing through community arts participation
This publication is an evaluation of community arts projects funded under the VicHealth Mental Health Promotion Plan 1999-2002.

Creative Growth
The Creative Growth Art Center's gallery and studio feature art by physically, mentally, and developmentally disabled adults.

Creative Spirit Art Centre
The Creative Spirit Art Centre provides art education and studio space to people with disabilities. Their on line gallery features some of the art works.

Creativity Explored
A nonprofit visual arts center in San Francisco, where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art.

The Enchanted Way: Art as Therapy in the Classroom
A site developed by James Torrenzano, an American art therapist.

f r e s h a r t • welcome!
Fresh art is a non-profit organization, whose purpose is to provide expanded artistic, personal development, and entrepreneurial opportunities to New York City artists with special needs.

Gateway Arts
Gateway Arts, in Brookline, Massachusetts, provides training to people over 18 who have mental retardation, autism, psychiatric disability, head injury, seizure disorder, visual impairment, learning or other disabilities.

HAI - Outsider Art
Hospital Audiences, Inc. was founded in 1969 by Michael Jon Spencer to provide access to the arts to culturally isolated New Yorkers including people with mental and physical disabilities, mentally retarded/ developmentally disabled persons, bed-confined/ wheelchair-users, visually and hearing-impaired individuals, the homeless, the frail elderly, youth at risk, participants in substance abuse programs, persons with HIV/AIDS and individuals in correctional facilities.

House of Artists Gugging
In the late 1950s, psychiatrist Leo Navratil of the Maria Gugging Psychiatric Clinic had his patients produce drawings for experimental purposes. The following year he discovered artistically talented individuals in his ward. In 1970 the first exhibition of the "Gugging Artists" took place in a Vienna gallery. The "Center for art- and psychotherapy" was founded in 1981, and artistically talented patients were invited to live in the house. In 1980s the name was changed to "House of Artists".

Infinitec - Learn - Art
Infinitec, Inc. is a joint effort of the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater Chicago and United Cerebral Palsy Associations, Inc., Washington D.C.

Inside Out Productions - Outsider art created by artists with developmental disabilities
Inside Out Productions is a subsidiary of L.A. Goal which offers paid employment and training in commercial art and sewing to people with developmental disabilities.

Kickstart
Kickstart, formerly the Society for Disability Arts and Culture (S4DAC) was incorporated November 1998 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its aim is to present and produce works by artists with disabilities and to promote artistic excellence among artists with disabilities working in a variety of disciplines.

KinderArt: Art for Children and Adults with Disabilities
This site features many activities and lesson plans that have proved successful with children and adults with disabilities.

Making the Journey - Arts and disability in Australia
By Mary Hutchison. Arts Access Australia, 2005.

NAEMI
Since 1988, NAEMI (National Art Exhibitions by the Mentally Ill) has held an annual nation wide search of psychiatric institutions to identify mentally disabled artists and give them the opportunity to exhibit their work, receive recognition, validation, vocational rehabilitation and self confidence and generate an income through the sale of their art work.

National Arts Disability Center | Visit the Artists
Links from the National Arts and Disabilities Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Neighborhood Center of the Arts
Established in 1984, The Neighborhood Center of the Arts, in Grass Valley, California, provides developmentally disabled adults with a place where they can make friends, explore their abilities, and gain a sense of accomplishment.

Outsider Art
A definition and history of the term from the Wikipedia free encyclopaedia.

The Outsider Pages: Folk and Outsider Art
From the Interesting Ideas web site.

Passion Works Studio
Passion Works Studio, in Athens, southeastern Ohio, supports collaboration between artists with and without developmental disabilities.

Project Ability - Centre for Developmental Arts
Project Ability grew out of a year-long project held in Glasgow, in 1981, to mark the International Year of Disabled People, and was registered as a company limited by guarantee with charitable status in 1984.

Putting Creativity to Work: Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities
Editor and Lead Writer: Paul Scribner. A VSA arts publication. (VSA arts is a nonprofit organization that creates learning opportunities through the arts for people with disabilities.)

raw art link art brut outsider artists painting surrealists symbolism visionary art piers midwinter
Based in Rochester, Kent, United Kingdom, this site is the work of Piers Midwinter, and contains an extensive, and well presented collection of links to outsider art sites.

A Review of Evaluation in Community-Based Art for Health Activity in the UK
This review, by John Angus, was also published by the Health Development Agency in 2002.

Schizophrenia and Creativity
From Schizophrenia and Human Nature, by Jason Stuart Ratcliff, who has suffered from schizophrenia for many years.

The Studio, a studio and gallery for visionary artists
The Studio is located in Eureka, California.

Survivors Art Foundation
The purpose of the Survivors Art Foundation is to encourage healing through the arts, for trauma survivors with physical and mental disabilities.

Tate | Glossary | Art Brut
A definition of Art Brut, with links to works by Jean Dubuffet in the Tate's collection.

Through Children's Eyes: A Collection of Drawings and Stories from the WHO Global SChool Contest on Mental Health
World Health Organization, 2001.

VSA arts
VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1974. With headquarters in Washington.C., VSA arts is devoted to creating a society where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts.

Galleries

abcd art brut : self taught outsider and folk art
A beautiful web site. The collection, constituted by Bruno Decharme, represents about 200 of the most important creators from the 19th century until the present and it contains more than 2000 works.

The Able Workshop Gallery
A gallery of work by woodworkers with a disability.

The Anthony Petullo Collection of SELF-TAUGHT AND OUTSIDER ART
The site includes interesting biographical notes on the artists and their work.

Anton Haardt Folk Art Gallery
This is a commercial gallery specialising in Southern folk art, outsider art, raw art, art brut, self taught art, folk and outsider folk art , and intuitive art.

L'Aracine et l'Art Brut accueil
A French collection of Art Brut.

Art Brut, Survivor Art Gallery Contemporary Neoexpressionist Paintings
Not for the faint-hearted, this site contains art works by survivors of abuse, mental illness, and war trauma.

ArtBrut.com
The site of a private dealer (Beverly Kaye) specializing in Outsider Art, Vernacular Art, Art of Trauma, Visionary, Folk, and Found Art, illustrated with 100 images and text by both the psychiatric and art communities.

The Bethlem Gallery
The Bethlem Gallery aims to display contemporary art work by service users who are or have been at the Bethlem and Maudsley NHS Trust.

Carl Hammer Gallery
This gallery contains much outsider art as well as art from the contemporary mainstream.

Charlotte Zander Museum- Schloss Bönnigheim
In 1996 Charlotte Zander established her museum with over 3,500 pictures and sculptures in a baroque castle near Stuttgart.

Collection de l'Art Brut
From the Art Brut Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. As well as its permanent collection, founded by the late Jean Dubuffet (who coined the term Art Brut to describe art created by people who worked entirely outside the boundaries of official culture, particularly insane asylum inmates), the gallery has regular temporary exhibitions of art brut from artists around the world.

Cunningham Dax Collection
The Cunningham Dax Collection is a collection of over ten thousand creative works by people who have experienced mental illness or psychological trauma. Dr Eric Cunningham Dax began collecting these works in 1946 for the purposes of mental health research and education.

The Flying Pig . Contemporary Art Gallery and Greenspace . Algoma . Wisconsin (WI)
A gallery with a special interest in outsider art.

Gaia Museum Outsider Art.
Includes a collection consisting of art from Denmark and other mostly European countries. All the pieces are created by people with learning disabilities. The art pieces have been collected since 1999 by LKU, the national association of art schools for people with learning disabilities.

Galerie St. Etienne | Self-Taught and Outsider Art
Glaerie St Etienne is in New York.

Gateway Gallery
This gallery is part of the Enrichment Center - a program for adults with disabilities, including physical challenges, intellectual disabilities, and mental illness.

Henry Boxer Art Gallery
A selection of works from the Henry Boxer Gallery in Surrey, U.K. Henry Boxer has dealt in Outsider and Visionary Art since the 1970's.

Marcia Weber Art Objects,
This gallery was founded in 1991, and buys and sells rare and unusual one-of-a-kind works of art created by self-taught artists.

New England Village Living Center Gallery and Artists
New England Village is a community in Pembroke, Massachusetts, for adults with mental retardation and related developmental disabilities.

NIAD Online Gallery
NIAD'S (National Institute of Art and Disabilities) mission is to provide an art program for people with developmental disabilities.

Outsider Art .info ... Outsider Art Online Exhibition Gallery
Outsider Art.info is an international exhibition of art from outside the art world.

Outsider Art Museum
The Collection of the Moscow Museum of Outsider Art was founded in 1989. Today it remains a museum dedicated exclusively to collecting and exhibiting Outsider Art in Russia.

Prinzhorn Collection
Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933) was an art historian and doctor. During the years after the First World War, he built up, with the support of Karl Wilmanns, the head of the Psychiatric Department in Heidelberg, a unique collection of works from psychiatric hospitals.

Project Return Art Gallery
The Project Return Art program promotes the artistic talents of adults with mental illness through the exhibition and sale of their works of art. Project Return, located in Tampa, Florida, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for adults with mental illness through education, vocational training, and supportive housing services.

Schizophrenia Treatment Evaluation Program (STEP) Art Gallery
From the University of North Carolina Neuroscience Hospital - Chapel Hill.

The Vincent van Gogh Gallery
An amazing site, with van Gogh's letters, as well as his art.

Individual Artists' Sites

This is a just small selection from the vast range of sites now appearing on the web.

The Academy of Creative Healing Arts
This is the web site of Susan Sholle-Martinis, who is an internationally known creative healing artist, occupational therapist, wife, mother of two children, and two-time cancer survivor.

AnneGrgich.com
Anne Grgich is a Californian artist who began making her own art at the age of fifteen.

Art and Autism - Artistic Work by Daniel Muller

Donna Balma
Donna Balma is a Canadian artist. The notes on her web page refer to her "consistent struggle...to transform the human body from what had become a site of mental and spiritual despair into a mystical and sacred source of pleasure."

Donna Williams
Dionna Williams is an Australian autistic author, artist, and musician.

Iris Gill Art Gallery
Iris Gill's gallery exhibits her expressionistic paintings, drawings, and assemblages.

Lisa Fittipaldi
Lisa is a blind artist.

Michael Jurogue Johnson
Michael has Down syndrome. He is a full time artist, and has his own web site.

Raw Art by Kelly Moore
Originally from Arkansas, Kelly Moore is a self taught artist who now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.