Art In/Sane Project

Dr. Valentin-Veron Toma

Over time, the project has expanded and aims to achieve several objectives:

1) identifying the psychopathological art collections that exist in the psychiatric hospitals and clinics in Romania and saving them from degradation;

2) study of existing programs of ergotherapy or art therapy in psychiatric hospitals;

3) creating the framework for a public debate, at academic level, on the opportunity to bring plastic expression from the hospital’s isolated space into the public space;

4) organizing the first academic debate on the importance of psychopathological art as part of the national and transnational cultural heritage, as well as the contribution that the exhibition in art galleries and museums, open to the general public, has to reduce the stigmatization of the mentally ill and the marginalization and social exclusion of “sick artists”;

5) setting up a series of public exhibitions with psychopathological works of art made by people diagnosed with various mental disorders who were admitted to hospitals and clinics in Bucharest and in the country;

6) discussing the opportunity to organize a permanent collection of psychopathological art in Romania to be hosted by a museum in its own right or by a museum of modern art;

6) the creation of a website dedicated to this collection of psychopathological art with texts in English accessible to researchers from Romania and other countries interested in the study of the cultural heritage of psychiatry or the comparative study of the psychopathological and/or aesthetic aspects of the works produced in several countries of the world.

Between 2019 and 2023, five editions of psychopathological art exhibitions from the Art In/SANE series were organized under the aegis of the Romanian Academy. Each time, the subject of the importance of public recognition of the cultural heritage value of these art collections in psychiatric hospitals and centers for mental health was discussed. It was discussed the status of the mentally ill in Romania, the low level of quality of many of the mental health services in our country, and the need to implement public policies that reduce the negative impact of stigmatization and marginalization of people diagnosed with mental disorders and those with various mental disabilities on the health and well-being of these vulnerable groups. This project was presented in 2019 at the international scientific conference entitled The Material and Immaterial Heritage of Psychiatry, which took place at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). The presentation of the collections of the Digital Art In/SANE Museum aroused the enthusiasm and appreciation of the entire academic audience at this conference. The quality of the works published in the catalog of the Art In/SANE exhibition – The Plastic Expression in Psychopathology, from the Romanian Academy Library, was also appreciated.

The results of the studies undertaken under this project indicate that, after 1990, mental health services were underfinanced, and the elimination and even discouragement of art therapy programs and other forms of art interventions in the current practice in hospitals and mental health centers make Romania continuously regress not only in relation to other European countries but, much more seriously, in relation to the situation of mental health services offered five or six decades ago. Let’s not forget that, starting in 1960, in some psychiatric departments, the first art-therapy programs were introduced for patients admitted to hospitals. Subsequently, through the law of ergotherapy, such programs of labor therapy, various occupations, and art expanded to other medical units in the country.

Over the past two decades, however, such programs have survived here and there only by supporting healthcare professionals who show inexhaustible reserves of enthusiasm and compassion for the patients they care for. More recently, art therapy programs have been implemented in private centers for mental health and in the individual centers of young specialists trained abroad. Unfortunately, however, these specialists do not have access to major hospitals and psychiatric clinics, and patients do not benefit from art therapy programs despite the fact that the latest international studies provide conclusive evidence of the therapeutic effectiveness of these interventions. The training of the new generation of psychiatrists is deficient in terms of training in methods and techniques of diagnosis, prognosis, and evaluation of the course of the disease through the visual arts and other forms of art.

Not to mention the lack of training programs in art therapy in their preparation. One consequence of this is that they cannot appreciate the indisputable heritage value of the great collections of psychopathological art left by their predecessors and cannot carry on a tradition that is already consistent and valuable at the European level. Another consequence is that they cannot use these tools in their current clinical practice, as their colleagues in other countries do. Only through a change of orientation in the entire disciplinary field of domestic psychiatry can we hope to have, in Romania, a revised and modernized mental health law, a national mental health strategy, a healthcare and research services infrastructure, as well as a university and post-university curriculum that truly belongs to the 21st century.

Projects similar to Art In/SANE in other European countries, such as Nefele Festival – The First European Art Festival for Mental Health in Greece, which debuted in October 2016, have already acquired the status of good practice, being included in the guide entitled Good Practices in Mental Health & Well-Being. Mental Health Services in the Community, financed by the European Union in the 3rd EU Health Programme (2014-2020). The number of such initiatives is increasing, not only in the European Union but also in other regions of the world.

On the other hand, by establishing the core of the first digital museum of psychopathological art collections in Romania, Art In/SANE enters the gallery of great similar projects from other countries. As remarkable examples, recognized globally, one can cite the Art Museum at the Sainte-Anne Psychiatric Clinical Hospital in Paris (MAHHSA)2 , the museum of psychopathological art “Le musée Dr. Guislain’ de la Gand in Belgium, DAX Centre collection in Melbourne (Australia)3 , Adamson collection in London (UK)4 , Saisekai art collection in Tokyo (Japan)5 , Het Dolhuys collection – National Psychiatric Museum in Haarlem (Netherlands)6 , etc. From an academic point of view, the scientific project dedicated to the study of psychopathological art in our country will continue with the elaboration of a paper entitled “Artworks as Assessment Tools in Psychiatry.

Changes in Institutional Contexts, Theoretical Perspectives, and Clinical Practices in Romania – 1960 -2023”, which I will present this autumn at the international congress of psychiatry in Wien (23rd WPA World Congress of Psychiatry, Vienna, Austria). From a cultural point of view, this year’s exhibition will be a preliminary stage in a wider international collaboration program. Thus, at the opening were present Mrs. Eva Laantee Reintamm, art historian, and Mrs. Mari Vallikivi from the Kondas Centre municipal art museum in the city of Viljandi (Estonia). They have selected a number of representative works that will participate in the project entitled Hidden Worlds Expanding from the Tartu 2024 program – European Capital of Culture7. The Romanian art collection will thus enter an international circuit, making visible to other countries not only the richness of our cultural heritage of psychopathological art but also the effort our team has made to increase the visibility of the issues related to mental suffering and the need for public policies, modern and inclusive mental health strategies, and care programs at the European level. If the scientific research work is a rather solitary activity, the effort to organize psychopathological art exhibitions is a team effort, as is the creation of the website, publishing of exhibition catalogs, translation of texts, or the elaboration and implementation of PR and communication strategies. Without all these professionals, enthusiastic and competent, from the Art In/SANE team, it would have been impossible to carry out a project of this scale.

1 https://health.ec.europa.eu/publications/comprehensive-approach-mental-health_en

2 https://musee.mahhsa.fr/

3 https://www.daxcentre.org/about-dax

4 http://www.adamsoncollectiontrust.org/history/

5 https://www.saiseikai.or.jp/about/en/

6 https://museumvandegeest.nl/english-information/

7 https://tartu2024.ee/hiddenworlds