Mental Health Awareness Outdoor Installation

November 2014

This November, Dedee Shattuck Gallery invites your participation in an interactive outdoor installation focused on promoting mental health awareness and stress reduction. This installation will honor South Coast organizations that assist those living with mental health illness and advocate for mental health awareness throughout our region.  

Wednesday-Sunday 12-4pm, individuals, Massachusetts and Rhode Island organizations, offices and small business are invited to bring a piece of white clothing to dye in a bath of indigo, and add to a clothesline hung in a Fibonacci spiral, a pattern based on the golden ratio, a mathematical relationship found in architecture and nature. The spiral symbolizes harmony, balance, and interconnectedness.  Photographs of the installation will be taken. As more individuals add to the installation, taking time to reflect and to reduce stress, the piece will grow in beauty and in meaning. In December clothing will be donated to a shelter, Donations will be accepted on behalf of a mental health charity.

Stress reduction in the work place is central to overall personal health and wellbeing.  We easily get caught up in a world of production, hardly taking a moment to even catch our breathe.  This past October Mental Illness Awareness Week, October 5 - 11th, came and went. The article National View: Mental Illness Awareness Week is Oct. 5-11 by Graema Cowan published by the Standard Times illuminated the role businesses can play in alleviating stress in the work environment. This installation will be push towards a more holistic work environment, one where personal well being and health remains just as important as being on top of our “to-do list.” Individuals may drop-in to participate, employers, groups, and organizations please call ahead to arrange an appointment. For more information please email gabrielle@dedeeshattuckgallery.com. 

Dedeeshattuckgallery@gmail.com      |      508. 636. 4177      |      1 Partners' Lane, Westport, MA 02790      |      W - Sat, 10 - 5, Sun 12 - 5