A “LIFE SAVING” mental health art exhibition is at risk of closure because of funding cuts.
While Edinburgh buzzes with artists and art lovers from around the world during the August festivals, vulnerable local residents are facing the defunding of their yearly exhibition Out Of Sight Out Of Mind (OOSOOM).
It has run for 13 years on the principle of giving voice to the marginalised and is now Scotland’s largest mental health art exhibition. This year is set to be the biggest yet, featuring artworks from more than 400 people with mental health issues.
Despite drawing around 2000 visitors each year, the event in October may be the last as it has been threatened with closure by Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership (EHSP) who are proposing to withdraw the exhibition’s funding in an effort to cut costs, along with other community mental health services in the city.
The exhibition is credited with improving the mental wellbeing of exhibitors who often go on to volunteer, study and work there.
Professional arts support is available to ensure people have the best chance of their expressions being heard and seen. It is designed to be accessible and remove barriers to participation in the arts while highlighting issues that people with mental health issues face in order to improve understanding within communities, across sectors and within the public realm.
The event has been backed by Museum Galleries Scotland, who said it would be a “huge loss” if this “vital” work ceased, as it was an “exceptional example of creating a truly accessible space and experience”.
“Out Of Sight Out Of Mind is a hugely valuable and rare project which centres people with lived experience of marginalisation and allows them to tell their stories and communicate the truth of their lives,” said a spokesperson.
“In museums and galleries, there is a growing recognition that the organisations are not doing enough to provide accessible and inclusive experiences for disabled people. There is low representation in the workforce and even lower in positions of management and leadership.
“Disabled people are a valuable part of society – museums and galleries should represent their lives and histories.”
The exhibition is supported by Edinburgh charity CAPS Independent Advocacy.
Pam van de Brug of CAPS said more than 2000 people with mental health issues had taken part over the last 13 years and benefitted in ways that were impossible to fully quantify.
“The Out Of Sight Out Of Mind exhibition is unique and is so important to people,” she said.
“People with mental health issues can struggle to be heard. They can have multiple barriers to participation in the arts, as well as other areas of society. The principles of ‘independent collective advocacy’ which underpin Out Of Sight Out Of Mind ensure that, at this exhibition at least, they are the most important voices in the room and at the planning table.”
She said that due to ongoing cuts, many people were facing the loss of multiple services aimed at improving or maintaining mental good health.
“Many services are often already underfunded as the number of people with mental ill health increases and the current threat of cuts has seen an increase in burdens all round,” she said.
Organisers of Out Of Sight Out Of Mind said the possible funding cut raised the question of whether Edinburgh was really a true beacon of artistic inclusion and excellence that Fringe organisers and the city council claimed, when it was unable to support its own most vulnerable residents to create and express and share their own art.
A spokesperson said: “Now in the UK, already vulnerable communities are under threat from a rising tide of misinformation, violence and stigma politically and socially, as well as struggling to seek support from mental health services which are over capacity and underfunded.
“In this context, removing one of the few truly inclusive spaces for people with mental health difficulties to use art to educate, share, expose and heal seems not only short-sighted in regard to the impact this could have on those involved but to the Edinburgh community who attend the exhibition in droves.
“Low-cost, high-impact arts projects like this, which operate under the principles of real inclusion, access and radical expression on which the Fringe Festival was founded, provide real community and opportunity for vulnerable communities in Edinburgh, while widening inequalities and access issues make the Fringe more and more inaccessible to its most vulnerable residents.
“Hearing the news that the EHSCP/Edinburgh Integration Joint Board intend to abandon this project, while contributing artists literally live in the shadow of the spectacle of the Fringe, casts into sharp light the inequalities faced by vulnerable artists in Edinburgh compared to those currently participating in the Edinburgh Fringe.”
Exhibitors join pleas for event to continue
One said: “This exhibition doesn’t just support artists — it saves lives. It saved mine.”
Councillor Tim Pogson, chair of the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board (IJB), said: “The IJB funds a range of services through block contracts and service level agreements.
“Officers have recently completed an extensive review of all of this spending to ensure that we are investing our limited resources in the most effective way. A report with recommendations for future funding arrangements will be considered by the IJB on August 26.
“We recognise the contribution that our third sector providers make and the concern this review may have caused.
"Unfortunately, the level of funding Edinburgh’s IJB receives has not kept pace with the increased demand and cost for our services. This means that difficult decisions have to be made in order to protect the essential support we provide for some of Edinburgh’s most vulnerable people.
“This review will help us to focus scarce resources on providing core, statutory services which help keep the people who most need our help safe and well cared for, while allowing our partners to meet their legal duties.”
This year’s Out Of Sight Out Of Mind exhibition is still set to go ahead at Summerhall from October 22 – November 9.
