Workshops Friday, Saturday to show how art can be mental health treatment

Cathi Norton views art as a healing activity. From painting to dancing to writing, she said she values using the artistic world to help those in need. This weekend, that goal will be extended to the community as she co-sponsors the first Art of Mental Health celebration.\nThe event, which includes art exhibits, workshops and a concert, began with a simple idea. Weekly painting classes are held at the Center for Behavioral Health, said Norton, the community relations specialist at the center. These classes allow clients to express themselves artistically while having access to clinicians to discuss the feelings behind their artwork, she said.\nAn annual event came from these classes, in which the public is invited to judge client work, with the winners being featured on note cards sold to the public.\nNorton said the community response has been so high in the past years that she decided to expand the awareness of using art for mental health treatment. Once the word was out, the community stepped up again, allowing Norton to fill an entire weekend. Financial backing from a number of sources allows most of the events to be free.\nThe workshops kick off at 8 p.m. Friday with a free dance and performance by the blues group the NorTones at the John Waldron Arts Center Auditorium. Bloomingfoods is catering the dance. From 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, the same venue will host five different workshops. Topics range from an improvisational movement theater to an explanation of how the brain responds to art to an open forum with mental health professionals. A "Food for Any Mood" booth sponsored by Bloomingfoods will also be available in the lobby throughout the afternoon.\nGrants from the Indiana Arts Commission are funding these workshops, making them free to the public. However, some workshops have limited seating.\nSaturday night requires an admission fee, but proceeds go to Mental Health of America, a nationwide nonprofit organization that seeks to help others achieve mental wellness, according to the Mental Health of America Web site. For the $12 ticket price, patrons can hear Carrie Newcomer and Malcolm Dalglish perform at 8 p.m. Client art from the Center for Behavioral Health will also be on display in the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Textillery Gallery, alongside personal comments from local artists. These pieces can be viewed for free beginning at 7 p.m..\nThe purpose of the weekend is to reduce the stigma people often associate with mental illnesses, Norton said. \n"We're concentrating on overall how art really bridges all kinds of people," she said. "Art touches everyone, and a lot of their art is really quite good." \nFor more information, visit www.artofmentalhealth.org.