Thinkarts

Welcome to Thinkarts

Thinkarts was formed in 2004 under the auspices of North East London NHS Foundation Trust, to provide arts-related events, projects and vocational opportunities for people who have experienced mental ill health. Between 2004 and 2011, it developed many projects including an exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, other exhibitions in Ilford, Walthamstow and Barking, and a creative writing anthology.

In November 2011, responsibility for thinkarts was transferred to CREST, a grassroots community organisation with forty years' experience of developing local services such as a mental health befriending service, Evolve -- a primary care mental health social inclusion project, and the Foyer Gallery – a small art gallery located in Walthamstow town centre.

CREST sees the coming year as crucial for developing a sustainable base in the voluntary sector for the future of thinkarts and for taking it forward in new and exciting ways. During this year we want to engage with and involve as many interested people and organisations as possible with this process. So we want your ideas and comments about how thinkarts might best fulfil its objective of promoting mental wellbeing through artistic expression in this part of north east London.

We will in due course be organising an inaugural meeting of the reborn thinkarts, but in the interim please look at the other pages of this website to learn of its past work and then join in our blog with your ideas and suggestions. And do let us know your contact details so we can keep you informed.

Testing a new blog!

If you wander over to www.thinkarts.org/testing/ you will find a new blog we are testing. This will become part of the new site.

The site will shortly be having a complete makeover. We hope to make it more interactive and exiting.

We'd love to hear your suggestions / ideas about what could go up on the new web-site! Send any ideas to ideas@thinkarts.org

Spring / Summer Newsletter

Spring Summer cover newsletter

Click here to read a pdf version. Spring/Summer Edition

Who are you calling an outsider?

"Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself"
Albert Camus

In 1971, the term 'Outsider Art' was used by historian Roger Cardinal to apply to products that belong to no movement or school, and are made by people who have no supposed artistic background.

The suggestion is that outsider artists have had no conditioning and therefore show purity of expression. However, the phrase can be misused or misunderstood, and is felt to be offensive to many individuals, particularly those who use mental health services and often experience daily marginalisation from society.

According to current British statistics, one in four people will suffer with a mental health problem during their lifetime. It follows that this will include a quarter of all trained or untrained artists too, whether they are involved in conventional settings or not. Where would that leave Van Gogh or Beethoven if they were living in the 21st Century?

Thinkarts holds dear the importance of equitable access and creative liberty for all artists. To continue removing the straight jackets and labels that exist in both the arts and health, perhaps 'Free Art' or 'Open Art' should become a more fitting description to recognise those making their own work beyond traditional routes.

Thinkarts Members Gallery

Thinkarts would like to welcome you to our members art galleries.

Our members galleries is an exciting online art gallery, established in 2007, to provide artists with space and exposure.

The creativity and determination of thinkarts artists, wishing to be exposed motivates us. To this end thinkarts galleries will continually present exciting, dramatic and provocative works of art in on the web and to the local art market.

Please click on a link below to go to a individual members gallery

Thinkarts Members Poetry

Click on a link to go to a members poetry page

Thinkarts Exhibitions

Click on a link to go to an archived exhibition

E17 Trail 2008

The exhibition 'Arts and Minds II' has closed now. It show cased more diverse artwork produced by mental health service users in Waltham Forest. The Ferguson centre is hosted the group show including contributions from members of Thinkarts. In addition artwork produced by participants of the Psychiatric Systems Survivors art studio was shown.

The exhibition aimed to value diversity and promote an inclusive sense of community. You can still experience the wide variety of creativity and self-expression on display by clicking the link to go to the online gallery

Six Days In A Lifetime

Vestry House Museum is curating an exhibition of photographic work by members of thinkarts, an Arts organisation affiliated to the NELFT.

Every Thursday at 1pm, for 6 weeks, participants were asked to capture their lives on film.

The results are eclectic, poignant and quite stunning.

Here is a chance to enter their world if only for a brief moment. An opportunity for all to reflect on our own behaviours and experiences; to realize the similarities, and to challenge any differences. To question what mental health means and most of all to...break the chain of misconception.

Six Days In A Lifetime

The E17 Art Trail produces an annual visual art trail with over 300 artists represented in exhibitions and events across the Walthamstow postcode, E17.

The E17 Art Trail was established in 2004 by two Walthamstow based artists. It has grown into an annual event with more than 300 artists from Waltham Forest taking part. Each artist, group of artists or venue in the E17 postcode organises their own events in their homes, gardens, streets, shops, cafes, libraries, galleries and museums and then submits the details to the organisers who produce a printed trail map and this website

E17 Trail 2007

E17 Trail 2008

Here's a link to a poster for "Seeing The Wood For The Trees" (Link opens a pdf document)Seeing The Wood For The Trees

Thinkarts Newsletters

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Newsletters

Contact thinkarts

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admin@thinkarts.org