All three rooms of the exhibit were filled with art and words by artists. Attendees had lots of space to take in the art that filled the space.
Artists and community members gathered at the Heyde Center for the Arts on Feb. 12 for a reception of the current art exhibit, “Healing through Art: Journey of Mental Wellness.”
The event was hosted in partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to shed light on mental wellness and its intersection with visual arts.
NAMI Administrative Assistant Kristen Deprey said this was the second event that the Heyde Center and NAMI have hosted together.
“Both events have dealt with the correlation between mental health and art,” Deprey said. “Understanding that they are very tied together and the healing aspect creativity can have on one’s life.”
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Open calls were sent out via social media and flyers looking for artists to join the gallery. Deprey said artists took to it immediately. The relationship between artistic practice and mental well‑being drew participants from all over Eau Claire and Chippewa Valley.
“The artists came out in droves,” Deprey said. “This topic was extremely interesting to our artists because creativity often comes from the hardest emotions we face.”
According to Deprey, the exhibit seeks to illustrate the restorative potential of artistic expression while also deepening public understanding of the complexities surrounding mental wellness.
“Our (NAMI’s) mission is always education, support and advocacy,” Deprey said. “We are here to advocate for everyone who is struggling and provide education surrounding mental health and art’s healing properties.”
Deprey said it is important for NAMI to show up where their community needs them, and hosting this event and celebrating local artists was just one way they were able to do that.
Amy Hahn, an art therapist, said she was excited to see the artwork of some of her clients featured in the event.
“I think that art helps people to heal regardless of whether you’re in therapy for it,” Hahn said. “Just being able to make something, see yourself improve and express yourself without words — all these things come from engaging in creativity.”
According to Hahn, having art up in a gallery is a great goal for her clients to work towards. She said that entering their art in a gallery comes with a lot of nuances, and art therapy is the perfect place to work through those fears.
One such artist, Maggie Ruff, said art is how she deals with her mental health.
“When I’m struggling with getting emotions out, that’s when I get the art out, because it’s literally the way I can take uncontainable emotions and get them out on paper or canvas,” Ruff said.
Ruff works with a plethora of different mediums and said the variety that art can offer is a great resource for a complexity of emotions.
“It’s about digging deep and understanding what I am working through, and that ends up guiding me to the medium I use,” Ruff said.
In Ruff’s artist statement for her piece entitled “Beautifully Broken,” which combines paint and broken glass, she writes that she was guided to this medium because of the fracturing nature of trauma and the ability to find beauty in something that may at first seem broken.
Ruff is just one of the many artists featured in the show, and she recommends anyone who wants to feel seen or inspired to walk through the gallery.
The exhibit will be open to the public through March 11 during the Heyde Center’s opening hours.
Freeman can be reached at [email protected]
