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Artsenta has celebrated 25 years of supporting artists in Dunedin’s mental health community with an exhibition, a book featuring artwork and poetry, and a CD of music – all made at this creative hub.

Artsenta has celebrated 25 years of supporting artists in Dunedin’s mental health community with an exhibition, a book featuring artwork and poetry, and a CD of music – all made at this creative hub.

Richard Benge, Executive Director, Arts Access Aotearoa, Pippa Sanderson, Community Development Advisor, and Stewart Sexton, Accessibility Advisor, attended the recent exhibition launch of Down The Track.

Richard spoke at the celebration, acknowledging Artsenta as a vibrant and worthy finalist in Arts Access Aotearoa’s Big ‘A’ Creative Space Award 2011, and presenting Artsenta Director Jill Thomson with the finalist’s certificate. He recalled meeting Jill at a hui for arts and health workers at the Creative Expression Unit in Cherry Farm Hospital north of Dunedin in 1988.

“At the time I was an artist in residence at Larundel Psychiatric Hospital in Melbourne, where I co-directed their first programme in drama, dance and visual arts in a mental health ‘institution’, as they were called in those days,” he says. “It’s so good to know that Artsenta has grown out of Cherry Farm and has benefitted so many artists over so many years.”
 
Jill Thomson has worked at Artsenta since 2003, becoming the Director in 2008. She has a background in occupational therapy, training in Auckland when the Occupational Therapy School was affiliated to Oakley Hospital.

A place to be creative in
“Some people can generate art on their own and others need a hand,” Jill says. “I think very early on, probably even before my training, I understood the significance of access to art materials, shared know-how and a place to be creative in.  Artsenta offers all of those things.”
 
Jill says Dunedin and its art community are very generous. “There are always people willing to donate materials and share skills, and a lot of people know about us because we’ve been around for a long time.

“However, we do have to put effort into our relationship with coal-face workers in the mental health community so they can suggest to people that Artsenta might be a good place to come to.”

The Creative Arts Trust, which runs Artsenta, was set up at Cherry Farm Hospital in 1986 to provide artistic opportunities for people using mental health services. Its Creative Expression Unit, later renamed Kimi Ora, offered various arts activities to patients.

Large, open space
Just before Cherry Farm Hospital was closed in 1991, the art space moved into Dunedin and changed its named to Artsenta. In any one day up to 30 artists come to its large, open space, which includes an electric potters wheel, an electric kiln, a music studio, and a large table where people can sit together, create and talk.

“It’s a real community here and people can be part of the community if they want to,” Jill says. “Some people prefer to keep to themselves while others love sitting at the main table, where ideas are shared and it’s a more social area.

“It’s not our intention to change or rehabilitate people. We love the fact that people can come and go from Artsenta. Sometimes artists will come back after years away’ others just keep on coming.  We don't believe that people have to move on if they get well.”

It's okay to be unwell
Hannah (not her real name), one of the artists whose work featured in Down The Track, has been coming to Artsenta for more than six years. She says it’s a place where it’s “okay” to be unwell and where you don’t have to hide it. 

She also likes the community aspect. In a recent article in the Otago Daily Times, she was quoted saying: “A lot of us don’t have family here. My family, when they found out I had mental illness, they said they were so ashamed and ‘see you later’.”

Hannah also praised the Artsenta staff. “The staff are just so fantastic. They definitely do more than the paperwork says they have to because they treat each person as an individual and work with you however you need to be worked with.”

In-house lunchtime concert
Artsenta has six art workers and offers weekly sessions in creative writing, drawing, jewellery, music and pottery. Its music studio is home to drums, guitars, a keyboard and things that can be banged or shaken. Every couple of months, there’s an in-house lunchtime concert where singers, songwriters and poets get to perform in front of a supportive audience.

Songwriters are also able to record their songs and have them broadcast on Artsenta’s fortnightly radio show called Artwaves on Otago Access Radio.

Artsenta presents exhibitions at its Crawford Street space, in Dunedin City Council’s Community Gallery or in local cafes. It also has a permanent gallery space in Dunedin Public Hospital where artworks are placed in permanent glass-covered frames and hung for a couple of months.