Craft in Action: Art & Mental Health

Saturday, June 3, 2017
3-5pm

RSVP for this free event: rsvp@craftinamerica.org

3pm:  “The Uncontained Center: Art & Mental Illness” a panel discussion with artist Kazuki Takizawa; Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences Professor at USC Elyn Saks; and Director of the Painted Brain Dave Leon

4pm: Suicide Prevention with Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services

In conjunction with the exhibition Kazuki Takizawa: Catharsis Contained, the Craft in America Center will present the next talk in our Craft in Action Lecture Series regarding mental health awareness. In his work, Takizawa uses blown and shaped glass to shed light on the darkness that can overwhelm those who face depression, disorder, and mental illness in their lives. His powerful bulbous shapes and vessels encapsulate these taboo topics and provide a personal catharsis to the artist.

Takizawa uses the vessel as a conceptual launching point for capturing and protecting feelings, while they literally surround us, we will use them as the launching point for conversations about mental illness. For our first hour, there will be a panel discussion on Art and Mental Illness between Takizawa, Director of the Painted Brain Dave Leon, and Policy Advocate and MacArthur Foundation Fellowship winner Elyn Saks.  In our second hour, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services representative Johanna Louie will be giving an overview about suicide prevention. Louie will discuss how to assess for lethality, how to support a person who is suicidal, and how to link the person to appropriate resources.

About our partner organizations:

Painted Brain creates lasting community-based solutions to mental health challenges and the impact of social injustice through arts, advocacy, and enterprise. The first-of-its-kind amalgam of mental health professionals and people living with mental health challenges, our community represents a cutting-edge response to America’s mental health crisis.  Art and media are the tools with which we build this community.  Creating a message about mental health is what brings us all together.

With 75 years of experience, Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services transforms lives by providing quality mental health care and substance use treatment in communities where stigma or poverty limit access.  From 11 sites and in nearly 100 schools, the agency helps almost 100,000 adults and children throughout Southern California each year. Its Suicide Prevention Center – the first in the nation to provide 24/7 crisis counseling – receives over 80,000 calls on its Crisis Line annually and provides support groups for people who have lost loved ones to suicide or have attempted it.

This event is the second talk in Craft in America’s initiative: Craft in Action, a series of talks using art as a channel to build awareness and activate for social good. Stay posted for more events taking place in coming months.