Art of lived experience takes centre stage A group exhibition at Macquarie Hospital’s Inside Out Mental Health Art Gallery is bringing together the work of 37 consumers
privileged and honoured to be able to share these artists’ stories,” said Jasmine. The show also features works by consumers from Cornucopia Art Group, Western Sydney Local Health District and Royal North Shore Hospital’s Child Youth Mental Health Service. Peer workers from across the Northern Sydney Local Health District also contributed. The gallery operates as a commercial gallery and usually presents two exhibitions each year. A common thread is they feature artists in the community and from Macquarie Hospital with lived experience of mental health issues. “Some of the past exhibitions have been quite dark and grim, but I feel like it’s the gallery’s role to hold space for all of those feelings — sometimes they can also be really light, and sometimes really hopeful,” said Jasmine. “Mostly I feel like I’m like a caretaker for the gallery space, and a caretaker for these artworks, because they’re often a holding space for the traumas and the experiences and the stories of our wonderful consumers.” The Inside Out Mental Health Art gallery is located in the Northern Sydney Education Conference Centre at the Macquarie Hospital campus. It is open to the public Monday to Friday. The Taking Steps exhibition is on until late April. Any enquiries please contact Jasmine at NSLHD-InsideOutGallery@health. nsw.gov.au.
and peer workers from across Sydney. The show, Taking Steps: A Mental Health Month Exhibition of Lived Experience, features 67 artworks, making it the largest group exhibition the gallery has hosted in more than a decade. Jasmine Steven, Inside Out Gallery Manager and Curator, and arts worker at Macquarie Hospital, said the exhibition explores the many ways people take steps toward recovery. “Each artwork reflects a personal journey, capturing moments of growth, resilience and hope,” she said. A team of art and music therapists work in the hospital’s rehabilitation program and for this exhibition, Jasmine worked closely with consumers over a two-year period, running open studio sessions. “We talked about the theme of ‘taking steps’ and would use the time to reflect and make art. We had an ongoing conversation. All the staff were so invested, all the consumers were so invested and passionate.” Jasmine said many of the consumers took a risk in making art in the first place as it wasn’t something that came naturally to many of them. One artist, Michelle, had her work featured on the exhibition’s invitation and catalogue. “When I hung this exhibition, I felt hugely
Art exhibition Jasmine Steven InsideOut Gallery Curator and Manager
Peer worker Paula Hanlon and artist Michelle Horsey
NSLHDNEWS | ISSUE 19| 4 OCTOBER 2024 NSLHDNEWS | ISSUE 6| 10 APRIL 2026
4
6
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online