Healing through art – Winnipeg Free Press – Winnipeg Free Press Achi-News

Seventeen canvases covered in blue, green, gray and red paint hang on the wall surrounded by colorful collages and shelves of art supplies. The paintings all depict a garden but contain their own flair – one shows a man fishing in a pond, another shows red bubbles floating in the wind.

Created by patients at Victoria General Hospital, the Portage Place exhibition seeks to shed light on the important relationship between art and mental health care.

In its third year, the Art in the Garden workshop is a partnership between Artbeat Studio, Stople Hope Fund and the Victoria Hospital Foundation.

“Art is so therapeutic and helps people … think about something else and (be able to) make it through one more day,” said Tracy Stople, owner of Stople Hope Fund. “It makes me feel really good that I can support people who might be in a mental health crisis or need something for that day and they can spend a few hours not thinking about their problems, but enjoying their only themselves.”

Stople started the organization in 2009 to help those living with mental illness. Her mother, Jean Stople, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and often participated in a group that created art in various media.

“I know how much she enjoyed art and how much it helped with her mental health,” said Stople. “She was always so proud. When I would visit her, she would show me what she did that day.”

Stople had one condition before helping fund Art in the Garden: she had to participate too. The workshop has helped Stople build connections and confidence, he said. Her hope is to help others while being able to honor her late mother at the same time. Patients today deal with the same stigma around mental illness that her mother faced in the 1970s, she said.

“I’m just talking about it. I tell people my mother has schizophrenia. It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” said Stople. “Let’s do what we can for people to make their lives a little better because they are struggling. They need any kind of compassion we can give and they don’t need the stigma.”

Artbeat program coordinator James Dixon said he often sees Art in the Garden participants return during the organization’s open studio hours.

“Your brain might feel busy, you might feel stressed. You might feel anxious, you might feel depressed,” Dixon said. “Art is a practice that can bring you back and make you feel better and … more confident about yourself.”

The combination of art and the outdoors makes the benefits even stronger, says Victoria Hospital Foundation communications and public relations manager Sharmon Luchuck. The hospital incorporates art into its decor as a way to help patients feel less anxious and make them feel seen in the space.

“Artwork as a whole is really beneficial to people’s well-being and even if you don’t necessarily realize it, maybe you feel a little bit more comfortable somehow,” Luchuck said.

Those who have taken part in the event continue to register every year, he added. They have to cap the number of artists at 20 because of the limited space in the hospital garden, but they haven’t had to turn anyone away.

Dixon said the program shows people that everyone is an artist.

The exhibition runs until 7 July.

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