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Museums and Mental Health:

Expanding the Definition of Inclusion

Presentation Notes

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THE IDEA:

What would it look like for Illinois Museums to support their audience’s mental health?

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“A deep body of research has already documented the role museums can play in a resilient and equitable infrastructure of health writ large.”

-Center for the Future of Museums, 2022

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Overview

1) Background: The Resiliency Collective

2) Mental Health Statistics in Illinois: Problem, Museum Solutions

3) Project Design and Activity: Featuring Illinois Art Station

4) Local, National, and International Contributions

5) Making it Work in Your Space

6) Audience Engagement: Collaborative Brainstorm

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Ishbinnaache/War shield, ca. early 1800s, buckskin, eagle and hawk feathers, dyed horse hair, pigment, sinew. Photo by John Weinstein for the Field Museum. All rights reserved. Presented as part of Apsáalooke Women and Warriors, Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, March 12 – December 21, 2020

The Resiliency Collective

In May 2021, after wrapping up my third pandemic semester and submitting the last of my students’ stories about the trauma they experienced, my husband asked me what I wanted to do now that I finally had a break.

“Go to a museum,” I said, because that’s what I do to relax.

Having borne witness to countless young students disconnected from social life, medical and mental health care, and experiencing the trauma of the pandemic myself, I was in need of some narrative uplift.

We went to my favorite history museum to see the Apsaalooke Women & Warriors exhibit, which had just been extended into the summer. Walking through the first-person account of a tribal descendant as told through artifacts, images, words, and videos, it seemed so apparent to me that trauma was universal, natural, and part of the human condition, and that the power of a single or community story offers the blueprint necessary for moving forward through difficult times

.

[Slide 6]

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Apsáalooke war shirt, ca. 1940s. Collection of Putt Thompson. Installation view by Jessica Musselwhite. Apsáalooke Women and Warriors, Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, March 12 – December 21, 2020.

Kevin Red Star, Spring Time, 2019. All rights reserved. Photo courtesy of the artist. Presented as part of Apsáalooke Women and Warriors, Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, March 12 – December 21, 2020.

I was inspired by the idea that hundreds of people I knew through teaching and beyond were all going through something similar. And here was a way for people to feel supported without even saying a word.

Museums offer a model for moving forward through crisis in ways that other institutions cannot.

They show us we are not alone, that countless others have faced unimaginable circumstances, and that resilience can show up in unexpected ways, like a woven shield, prayer cloth, or well told story.

“What if all the museums in Illinois ran exhibits that addressed mental health,” I asked my husband. “What a powerful show of force that would be to the public. To acknowledge what we’re all going through and what some people go through in and out of a pandemic.”

“Make it happen.” He said.

So I started reaching out to local leaders to see who was interested. After a quick Google search, I called the Illinois Association of Museums, and year-and-a-half later, we launched the project as a pilot program with the sponsorship of Illinois Humanities and in partnership with NAMI Illinois, enabling three unique exhibits at three diverse organizations across the state.

In its Reopenings Reflection Report, the American Alliance of Museums tell us, “Our communities are looking for tangible solutions to real problems, and museums can contribute to those solutions by changing how they think about their work. They can use their considerable resources, and the functions they excel at, to aid social goods like physical and mental health, economic equity, and inclusive attitudes.”

This evidence is supported by the 2021 report from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, titled “Understanding the Social Wellbeing Impacts of the Nation’s Libraries and Museums.” In that report, they describe the approach we took in 2023 as we launched the pilot of this project. They concluded that museums “promote the wellbeing of their communities by developing broader networks of support. Working with community partners, they are able to address community needs more effectively than they could alone."

When I stepped into that exhibit in 2021, it was with the un-blurred memory of the year-and-a-half prior, and of my community college students, young and aged, some raising children who were learning at home, many were part of our essential workforce, holding jobs at as drivers, care-givers, grocery store cashiers, hospital staff, and security guards. Many of them lost family members during the pandemic, didn’t have access to Wi-Fi or a computer, or were unable afford basic needs for what they perceived as the foreseeable future.

My hope in starting this project even before I was aware of this international movement, was not to to alleviate the burden of all of society, but rather, that anyone coming into a museum in our state could feel as supported I did then, during a time of national crisis.

[Slide 7]

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Mental Health in Illinois

In 2023, nearly 30% of adults experienced symptoms of depression or anxiety.

1 in 5 Youth had at least one major depressive episode over the last year.

Only 22% of Illinois’ mental health needs can be met with the current workforce.

In 2023, 25% of Illinois residents reported they did not receive care for a mental health condition.

Kaiser Family Foundation: Mental Health in Illinois Fact Sheet, 2023.

For many people, the pandemic opened their eyes to the visceral pain of trauma and mental distress, and for others, it heightened their existing agonies. Well-resourced individuals sought treatment, those less connected became further away from care in a system overburdened by the sudden influx of participants. What the US experienced during the pandemic was both a crisis and a wake-up call.

With people’s attention turned inward, the focus on what was in and out of their control dominated the news and daily life. Those with access needed support. Those without it needed support. Those who provided support needed support, and those in supportive roles felt the weight of their loved one’s burdens.

The tremendous need was reflected across states and racial and economic breakdowns. People were hurting everywhere, and there was not enough care to go around.

[Slide 8]

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Mental Health Distress Summary, 2024. North Central Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Center.

In Illinois, this was no different. In a 2023 CDC PULSE study, 32-35% of adult Illinois residents experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression. Broken down by age group, the highest numbers are in individuals between the ages of 18 and 29.

Andrew Wade, the former Executive Director of NAMI Illinois, explained that 81 out of 102 Illinois counties lacked child psychiatrists. And rural health expert Mary Garrison described obstacles to care on both the providers and patients’ ends, including the “four As,” availability, affordability, accessibility, and acceptability.

Jud DeLoss, CEO of the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health, attributes this to the fentanyl crisis, opioid overdoses, and increased depression and anxiety from the pandemic. As of June, over 6.5 million Illinois residents, or 51% of the state, live in areas deemed as “mental health professional shortage areas,” and the clinical workforce meets only 21% of that population’s needs.

While the tragedies and isolation of COVID heightened public awareness, it is likely to take years before the medical and behavioral infrastructure catches up to the actual need, despite state action to expand the mental health workforce earlier this year.

What I set out to do in 2021 was not intended to replace therapists with museum visits, but rather, to help provide a way for people to feel seen, listened to, validated, and connected to the museums themselves, and the people and topics we get to interact with every time we enter your space.

[Slide 9]

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The Resiliency Collective

The first phone call I made was to Illinois Association of Museums President Jeanne Schultz Angel, only I had no idea that’s who would answer the phone. She said, “I’m in my car right now, but can you text this to me? It sounds like an interesting idea.”

Her willingness to accept a call and pitch from a nervous stranger was the encouragement needed to push forward and keep asking.

So I reached out to NAMI Illinois, NAMI the state affiliate for the National Alliance of Mental Illness and largest mental health advocacy organization in the country. It turned out they were interested too.

We met several times over the next few months to consider how we could approach the topic of mental health through a museum lens and what we ultimately agreed on was that the conversation was relevant to all public audiences, and that there were ways of engaging people and connecting with them without the stigma attached to mental health or the barriers to experiencing a supportive environment.

[Slide 10]

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The Resiliency Collective is a project to integrate mental health and wellbeing into local museums and community spaces.

Illinois Art Station

West Chicago City Museum

Casa Michoacán

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Resources and Fact Sheets
Training and Education
Advocacy
Support Groups
Connections and Referrals

Advocacy
Collaboration
Education
Professional Development
Conferences and Events

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The Organizations

Illinois Art Station provides young artists and families experiences that promote creativity, skill-building, confidence, connection, and empathy. The organization offers classes, camps, school programs, online lessons, and events.

The West Chicago City Museum is a community-centered history and art center that provides research, exhibits, and programs.

Casa Michoacán is a cultural and educational federation of clubs serving the Illinois Michoacán community. They have locations in Chicago, West Chicago, and Edwardsville.

Initially, when we were developing the concept for the project, we were not sure how many partners we could bring into to fold. We settled on three, with the goal of diversifying locations to reach different audiences. We reached out to a number of local directors and associations to leverage our contacts and gauge interest in the project.

The premise was this: Each of the three partnering organizations would run an exhibit with the theme of mental health during May, which is Mental Health Awareness Month. They had the autonomy to design and run it in the way that they felt best served their audience.

Each one would feature physical and virtual options and could be in the form of a program, event, exhibition, or discussion. The purpose was engagement with audiences new and returning and designed to support the mental health and wellbeing of those in attendance.

[Slide 13]

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The Team

IAM:

Jeanne Schultz Angel, President

Debbie Fandrei, Board Secretary

Shana Cooper, Project Manager

NAMI Illinois

Andrew Wade, (Former) Executive Director

Lachell Aaroneaux, State Training Director

Molly Pimm, Director of Business Development

Illinois Art Station:

Hannah Johnson

West Chicago City Museum:

Sara Phalen

Casa Michoacán:

Maggie Lugo, Juanita Duran

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Panels Displayed in Each Partner’s Space

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West Chicago City Museum

West Chicago City Museum had already had a We Go Together campaign that harkened back to the early days of pandemic. The theme concept was that their community came together to support each other, just as they had done historically during previous times of crisis.

The museum worked with four community artists to host group wellness workshops every Saturday in May, which included creating Awesome Jars, Worry Jars, and Energy Renewal Boxes.

NAMI Illinois provided in-person support for two of the events later in the month.

[Slide 16]

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Casa Michoacán

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Illinois Art Station

Illinois Art Station provides programming for children, youth, and families in McLean County and the surrounding areas.

Their campaign, #3YearsIn3Lines was part of the regional collecting efforts of the McLean County Museum of History and its community partners to capture and curate the pandemic experiences of McLean County residents.

#3YearsIn3Lines asked participants to reflect on their pandemic experiences, create works of art (both visual and written) inspired by those experiences, and contribute those visual and written works to this collecting and exhibiting project.

Illinois Art Station partnered with local practitioners and agencies to host events virtually and in-person for youth and families, as well as for local healthcare workers. Participants created artwork and haikus that were displayed at the exhibit through the end of the month, and visitors were asked to complete surveys following each experience.

[Slide 18]

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Director Hannah Johnson

Illinois Art Station

[Introduce Hannah]

For the next few minutes, you will have the opportunity to go more in-depth with one of our partners, Illinois Art Station. Director Hannah Johnson, who leads the organization’s work in inclusive education and collaboration-driven programming, will share with you their unique approach to the project, how it came together and who they worked with, and the impact of the program on their new and regular audiences.

I had the great fortune of working with Hannah on the project, and throughout, she served as a thought partner and leader to me and the other organizations involved. Please join me in welcoming Director Johnson.

Hannah Presents

[After Hannah’s Presentation]

Thank you, Hannah, your leadership on community-centered wellbeing has served as a testament to power of building partnerships and model for how others can successfully incorporate wellbeing into their own practices.

[Slide 19]

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Local and National Examples

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Brushwood Center, Riverwoods

Brushwood Center at Reyerson Woods is a nature and arts organization that works collaboratively to promote health equity and access to nature. Their approach centers on community partnerships, inclusion, and the promotion of arts and nature for personal and community wellbeing.

Brushwood Center’s programs focus on youth, families, Military Veterans, and those facing racial and economic injustices.

Their veteran’s program, At Ease takes a nature-based approach to help veterans “build skills in creative expression, while also providing access to mental health support.” Participants include veterans, caregivers, family members, and active-duty officers who have the opportunity to “explore and express their emotions through nature-based art, music, and photography workshops.”

Brushwood also hosts events and programs for children, families, and community members in the Lake County area.

[Slide 21]

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Field Museum, Chicago Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery

Traveling Exhibitions, Field Museum, 2022.

In 2022, the Field Museum hosted a one-of-a-kind exhibit titled "Death: Life’s Greatest Mystery.” The exhibit explored the scientific, spiritual, and emotional aspects of the concept of death through a cultural and inquiry-driven lens.

Each section was question-guided with panels reading “What will happen to my body when I die?” and “How will my death affect others?” When I interviewed the exhibit designers, they shared that the audience-driven approach was created in response to parents and families asking for material to help explain the concept. The panels were created with a social-emotional focus for children and presented through artifacts and cultural representations of expressions about death around the world and from the human, animal, and plant world.

One of the more memorable interactive elements of the exhibit was a visitor connection wall, where people could respond to question prompts such as, “How do I want to be remembered?” and “Before I die, I want to…” There were benches and content warnings ahead of each section topic, signaling to visitors that they may encounter sensitive topics.

This kind of attention to an audience’s mental well-being can go a long way in supporting visitors' emotional needs as they move through the exhibit.

[Slide 22]

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Design Museum of Chicago

Block Museum of Art, Evanston

The Design Museum of Chicago, whose mission is guided by the human aspects of design, recently hosted an exhibit titled, “Voices Embodied: Reverberations,” featuring the work of multimedia and textile artists with disabilities.

Each installation was presented without interpretive description, and instead only labeled with the artist’s name and the work title. The artist-generated descriptions were posted on a separate website and offered as a physical handout in addition to resources on disability and design.

While the exhibit didn’t focus on mental health, particular attention was paid to works that communicated the message of struggle, resilience, and validation,

that resonated with visitors with and without disabilities. Benches were provided throughout the exhibit, and the focus was solely on the art itself, allowing maximum space for each piece to be processed by the audience.

In addition to this exhibit, the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern hosted a three-day Media and Mental Health Symposium titled, “Media and Mental Health: Exploring Contemporary Representations of Madness, Melancholy, and Trauma in Film and Television.”

The annual program is led by the university’s Pritzker Pucker Studio Lab for the Promotion of Mental Health via Cinematic Arts. Over three days, participants attended film screenings, panels, and sessions about the narratives of trauma, loss, and climate anxiety. Audiences included students and non-students, and presenters came from all over the world to share cultural narratives with attendees.

[Slide 23]

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Museum of Modern Art, New York: Artful Practices for Wellbeing AND Meet Me at MoMA

Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul: Mental Health, Mind Matters

The National Museum of American History: Trauma-Based Knowledge Work

Since 2022, the movement to integrate mental health and wellbeing into museum spaces has grown at the grassroots level nationally. There are numerous examples, most notably the National Mental Health Museum Project, which curates examples of organizations across the country doing this work.

Notable programs and exhibits include the Museum of Modern Art, which has a trauma-informed art program titled Artful Practices for Wellbeing, and their past programs include art-centered experiences for Alzheimer’s patients, family members, and caregivers. Museum leaders work with practitioners and community members to create engaging, and wellbeing-focused experiences for participants in each program.

Other notable examples include exhibits on grief and loss at Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington D.C., and the traveling exhibit dedicated to mental health at the Science Museum of Minnesota, titled “Mental Health: Mind Matters” that was first created in Finland. The Science Museum has also created toolkit for the exhibit, designed to help other museums as they enter the mental health conversation.

Additionally, The National Museum of American History’s Trauma-based Knowledge Work Project helps museums to integrate trauma-informed practices into their programming and to support their staff.

The program provides resources and training to museums across the country to help them better serve their public and their employees. If you are interested in their work, you can access it through my presentation notes or talk with me after the session.

Internationally, this movement has been progressing in Europe since the late '90s. There are myriad examples of innovative exhibits and programs that serve as valuable models of what this could look like for all types of museums and organizations.

[Slide 24]

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What Can We Do?

So, I invite you to enter the conversation as practitioners, community leaders, museum goers, and caring citizens and family members as we shift into a “possibilities” mindset.

And I want to start with the question, "what can we do?"

One organization that serves as a model for maximizing their resources through relationships with individuals and communities to design experiences that support their audience's mental wellbeing is the Field Museum.

You are going to have the opportunity to engage with two living artifacts shared with me through the Field Museum’s Learning Lab, a resource for educators working with K-12 students.

These living artifacts are intended to be touched, engaged with, and appreciated as learning resources, works of art, and storytelling facilitators created by artists from Myaamia, Ho-Chunk, and Oneida Nations.

Following that, you will be asked to imagine possibilities and contribute to a group conversation.

[Slide 25]

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“Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories was created with the guidance of an advisory council of 11 Native American scholars and museum professionals, and in partnership with 130 collaborators representing over 105 Tribes. The 5 Native Truths, the foundations for the exhibit, come directly from Native people. The Five Truths are as follows:

1. Our Ancestors connect us to the past, present, and future

2. Native people are everywhere

3. The land shapes who we are

4. We have the right to govern ourselves

5. Museum collecting and exhibition practices have deeply harmed Native communities”

Indigenous Astronomy: The Sky and Stars Shape Who We Are, Unit Scope and Sequence, 2022, Field Museum.

First, it is important to acknowledge the significance of engaging with these living works and center the experience on the people who created them and the storytellers who invited us to engage with the lessons they share.

The statement you see comes from the Field Museum's tribal council and it reads:

“Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories was created with the guidance of an advisory council of 11 Native American scholars and museum professionals, and in partnership with 130 collaborators representing over 105 Tribes. The 5 Native Truths, the foundations for the exhibit, come directly from Native people. The Five Truths are as follows:

1. Our Ancestors connect us to the past, present, and future

2. Native people are everywhere

3. The land shapes who we are

4. We have the right to govern ourselves

5. Museum collecting and exhibition practices have deeply harmed Native communities”

[Slide 26]

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“We are committed to bringing Native American voices to the forefront through Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories. As part of an ongoing effort to celebrate and tell the histories and contemporary experiences of Native American people, we also recognize the Native American presence on the land where our building is located.

The Field Museum acknowledges that it was built on the traditional homelands of the Council of the Three Fires: The Potawatomi, Odawa, and Ojibwe Nations, as well as the Ho’Chunk, Meskwaki, Sauk, and Miami Nations. The Museum recognizes that the region we now call Chicago was the traditional homeland of many Indigenous nations and remains home to diverse Native people today. The land we walk was and remains Native land.”

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Warrior Up Wool Blanket

A collaboration with Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples and designed with Kateri Masten (Yurok) and Chisa Oros (Zuni/Yoeme). One of the nation’s oldest Native philanthropic organizations, Seventh Generation Fund's blanket highlights the mighty Yellowhammer Flicker, a powerful Medicine Being that links Earth and Sky with each new day.

Indigenous Astronomy: The Sky and Stars Shape Who We Are, Unit Scope and Sequence, 2022, Field Museum.

The first work you will see was produced through a collaboration led by the Seventh Generation Fund, an organization, “Dedicated to Indigenous Peoples' self-determination and the sovereignty of Native nations.”

This blanket is loaned through the Field Museum’s educator program as part of a Native Astronomy unit. Museum educational teams worked extensively with the artists and the communities contributing to these works to be able to share them in educational settings, such as this. The blanket is used to facilitate discussion, as students are guided through stories about constellations, told through audio recordings in the artists’ own voices.

Guiding questions about patterns, symbols, and identity are woven into the lesson, and students are asked to reflect on their own family stories, and how they personally connect to their own community.

They are then guided through a reflection activity with the lights off and stars projected on the ceiling where they are asked to focus on taking deep breaths and calming their bodies.

[Slide 28]

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Artist’s Statement:

“These are two large maps about Removals as Hoocąk and Myaamiaki have experienced them.

They form a space for talking about what is euphemistically known as Removal.

We must stand for each other's stories. We must learn to recognize the manifestations and seeds of Removals all around us.

Everything happens somewhere.”

Margaret Wickens Pearce, Cartographer

Citizen Potawatomi

The other work making its way around to you is a Tribal Removal Map. This living artifact was created by an artist-cartographer who worked with leaders and members of the Myaamia and Ho-Chunk Nations to tell the stories of tribal removal and colonization through members own voices.

The maps are used to facilitate learning and reflection around identity, community, collective trauma, resilience, and the importance of telling one’s own story. Students are given the opportunity to engage with the maps and create their own narratives with classroom resources to tell personal stories.

As these resources circulate, I’d like to invite you to consider how living artifacts can be used to start a conversation with your audience that supports their mental wellbeing.

What resources are available to you in your space and around it? What resources are available in your community that could be used to facilitate engagement connected to mental health and wellbeing? Images, postcards, maps, and natural resources in the spaces around you all can be used as starting points for connection. As you take a moment to reflect on these possibilities, consider the audiences they might resonate with more.

Who’s ready to share?

[Slide 29]

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Create opportunities for inclusive social connection and establish programs that foster positive and safe relationships.

Advance public education and awareness efforts to introduce and elevate the topic in programs and exhibits.

Create and provide education, resources, and support programs for community members and key populations.

Foster a culture of connection in the broader community by highlighting examples of healthy social connection and leading by example.

Trendswatch: Navigating a Volitile Future, Museum, American Alliance of Museums, 2024.

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Shana Cooper

Project Director

The Resiliency Collective

sbcooper79@gmail.com

theresiliencycollective.com

847-767-7550

Hannah Johnson

Executive Director

Illinois Art Station

illinoisartstation.org

Hannah.Johnson@illinoisartstation.org

309-386-1019