A Salford mental health charity has created an art exhibition to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
The People & Portraits of Salford has been created by Start Inspiring Minds, a charity in the Salford Precinct that uses arts and creativity to assist community members who may be struggling with their mental health.
The event is based in the East Wing of the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, and will boast a plethora of personal testimonies, self-portraits and poems by charity members and volunteers.
Project manager of START’s ‘Reach out to end suicide’ campaign+, Dennis Baldwin, said the group’s occupants had been working hard to produce the best artwork possible for the exhibition.
A suicide survivor himself, Dennis found both solace and a love for photography in the group. He said: “It was about giving the enjoyment in my life back again. I could appreciate the small things around me and the beauty within any given scene.
“It was about sort of turning my mind on its head; rather than looking for the bad and evil in everything I started to look for the good and beauty within everything that the camera gave me.
“It opened that window just a crack for me to get enough sunlight onto my life.”
Dennis and the team have worked tirelessly to display the work created during their creative sessions. He said: “[The exhibition] celebrates the origins of the charity, but also the people we help and support.
“It’s going to be well-rounded with a lot of different elements and there’s some photography in there as well.
“There’s going to be a lot of different forms of artwork in that exhibition.”
He stressed the benefits of attending the weekly art therapy groups offered by the charity, that takes in members from all around Salford who’ve received a referral from their GP.
He said: “It’s that mindfulness. It’s that you can switch off from everything that’s going on in your world at that time and just focus on that output artwork and what you’re doing.
“It gives you a breather from everyday life.
“Our groups are totally free of charge, with professional artist instructors in there.
“We also have mentors that actually provide the mental health support for them; it’s a bit like a mini university, but for creative arts and mental health.”
Oil paint, textiles, mosaics and photography will all be exemplified within the art pieces shown, to represent the range of workshops and opportunities the charity provides.
There will also be a total of 30 art pieces, which has been shortlisted from a variety of submissions by members of the group, to commemorate 30 years of the charity’s existence since being founded by Bernadette Conlon MBE.
Among the pieces selected are works completed by aspiring artists within the group, whom Dennis says have flourished since attending START: “We use START as a stepping stone as well for people into further education, whether that be around art or the arts.
“Some of the people have gone on to be professional.”
‘The People & Portraits of Salford’ is now open at Salford Museum and Art Gallery.
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