Planning Group Testimonial In Response To Cuts
Image of a group of people, gathered and facing the camera. Most of them are wearing purple t-shirts bearing a white Out of Sight Out of Mind logo.
Below is a testimonial written by the Out of Sight Out of Mind Planning Group in response to the cuts proposed by the Edinburgh Integrated Joint Board. The exhibition in 2025 will be unaffected. However, if the cuts happen it would mean a loss of funding for the exhibition in 2026.
Out of Sight Out of Mind Planning Group
We are a group of people who have experience of mental health issues. Together we plan and deliver an open call exhibition for people who have mental health issues. It is the biggest mental health exhibition in Scotland. It is a unique exhibition, and a unique support for people with mental health issues.
Out of Sight Out of Mind is open to anyone with a mental health issue. It is welcoming, diverse, inclusive, accessible, accommodating and flexible. It is non-hierarchical, non-judgemental, validating. It doesn’t question us or provide opinions. It is accountable, free from conflicts of interest and is not bound to a particular treatment method or philosophy.
We spend 11 months each year making it happen, and we deliver the kind of exhibition that we want to take part in. This exhibition has an impact on our lives, others’ lives and leads to change.
Voices that art institutions might not be interested in platforming
We want everyone to be allowed to express themselves using art if they would like to.
Mental health can prevent us from having many wonderful things. Some of us also experience physical ill health, neurodiversity, disability, not being from Scotland, having an ethic minority background, different social backgrounds, and/or gender identity struggles. This can all come hand in hand with housing and financial issues, a lack of resources, education and other opportunities.
This can mean we lack art experience, knowledge and networks, art CVs and art degrees. We may not meet cultural ideas of what an artist is (a certain kind of ‘attractiveness’, have an outgoing personality, be the right kind of ‘weird’). For people who already have arts experience, this exhibition is place where they and their artistic voices can be freed of such expectations and demands.
Out of Sight Out of Mind gives us all, whether we have these things or not, an opportunity to take part in art, as equals.
As a Planning Group we ensure that our group and the exhibition are welcoming, non-hierarchical, accessible, supportive and fair. Our exhibition is free of art jargon, our application process is simple, we offer support, we offer art materials grants, we aim to meet exhibitors’ requests, to meet accessibility needs where we can, participation is not dependent on art experience, and we are not concerned about perceptions of artistic quality.
We produce an exhibition of the highest professional standard that we can. We carry forward 12 years of experience, we visit other exhibitions to learn more, we spend a year planning, months curating, weeks installing and invigilating. The love, care and professionalism we give is shown in the feedback from the community.
When words are not enough
In mental health services, work, social and family settings, speaking about our mental health can feel risky, unwelcome and even taboo. Self-confessed mental health issues are a definite demotion in society. We don’t always feel that we are taken seriously because of stigma. Conversations can be uncomfortable. Even trained professionals can find it hard and complicated to say the word ‘suicide’. It shouldn’t be this way.
This exhibition is a rare space. It is just for us. We don’t have to get the words right, we can say what we want, we can be as we are, we can be sad, happy, honest, scared, angry, political, funny, loud or quiet. Art is one of the places a person is allowed to indulge in their distress (or their appreciation) that might seem trivial to others, and people are used to seeing taboos in art.
The act of sharing what we want to say in a room with other people’s thoughts and opinions can be empowering, and really is advocacy.
In some ways the exhibition is the opposite to social media: we can speak out loud, and people can listen or move on, but we cannot be disagreed with, and we do not need to defend ourselves.
It is a space where our voices can be seen as beautiful, important, normal and shared.
Our exhibition is an unconventional method to engage with the public, our community and people close to us, about mental health. People are more likely to have empathy. We bamboozle people out of being judgemental.
When services are not enough
Out of Sight Out of Mind is for our mental wealth.
Mental health support needs to happen before someone becomes mad. The industry needs more routes for contact and Out of Sight Out of Sight is one these within a scant, threadbare, precarious, and often ineffective set of supports, which can leave us in a worsening state.
The exhibition is one solution to helping people. It appeals through not being a conventional method. It is safe, welcoming and sometimes a first step to engaging and speaking about important things.
As well as the act of communicating something difficult being empowering, the creative process is unique way to channel thoughts, emotions and energy, and is a proven and legitimate tool that we can use to improve our mental health.
Having Out of Sight Out of Mind exhibition in our calendars is a catalyst and an encouragement to make art. It gives many of us the structure we need to complete something: a theme, a deadline, support and the solidarity of a collective. Just making and showing an artwork might be a single step we can take, which might lead to future steps.
The work of the Planning Group is task driven and value based. It gives us meaning, purpose, confidence, reassurance, skills and experiences and it can give us the courage to tackle other projects. We have a purpose for our day, and it can help us get out of bed. We can put Out of Sight Out of Mind on our CV’s, refer to it at job interviews, and go on to work and study because of being involved. We share our knowledge with others who are inspired by our work.
Having a mental health issue can result in our isolation. The Planning Group are a found family. The exhibition a way for us to connect with our city. Out of Sight Out of Mind is a community of hundreds of people: exhibitors, volunteers, audiences, supporters, workers and us. We all belong. We are all seen.
A place where someone who feels as inconsequential as me can have an impact
We want everyone to have a space where they get a chance to say something about decisions being made. In organising Out of Sight Out of Mind exhibition we learn that we can speak up, that we have good ideas, that we are resourceful, and that we can make a difference.
Part of the stigma and self-stigma that comes with mental health issues is a perception of ‘lost time’ and ‘lost potential’. Here a small piece of positivity is possible, a sense that ‘what I have been through is not wasted’. Involvement brings some meaning to our struggle.
What has been built over the past 13 years is unique and powerful. People tell us that they would like to have an exhibition like ours in their city, in their town, or in their country. We think that Out of Sight Out of Mind could be a template for all kinds of services, where people know they are welcome, accepted, valued, equal and where people can take part in decisions and where their agendas matter.
Please value our voices, the difference that we have made and that we will keep making.
Please don’t take our exhibition away.
By the Out of Sight Out of Mind Planning Group
Read more: about the proposed cuts and how to share your own personal testimonial here.