Our Power is a Mental Health Foundation project exploring the mental health impact of racism, particularly racist microaggressions or everyday racism, through creative workshops which have taken place in the Studio at the Gallery of Modern Art in 2024.

This exhibition displays textiles, zines, haiku with drawing and painting, and installations created in workshops by people with lived experience of racism. In these workshops participants discussed racism, shared their experiences, and explored the impact that these have on their mental health. They made art as a way of expressing and responding to the racism that they have experienced. The artwork was then co-curated into an exhibition by project participants, which will be displayed in the COMMONspace until 12^th January 2025.

As well as working with the brilliant Learning and Access Team at the Gallery of Modern Art throughout this project, we have been fortunate to work with five fantastic artists and a wonderful curator.

Anna Bochsler (textiles) is an artist, maker and facilitator who works with a range of materials to explore the interactions between art, mental health, and the physical world. Anna’s practice is motivated by social justice and promoting the importance of arts in mental health and community care.

Dr Emmaleena Kakkela (zines) is a Lecturer in Social Policy at University of Strathclyde, with a PhD in Social Policy. Emmaleena is passionate about utilising art-based methods to address social justice and making art and knowledge production inclusive to groups which these have traditionally excluded.  

Bryony Nisbet (zines) is a mental health practitioner and researcher focused on evidence-based solutions for strengthening policy and practice relating to welcoming refugees and improving mental health outcomes. Bryony is currently working on several creative projects including a PhD project with forcibly displaced lone parents.

Mia Gubbay (co-curation planning and support) is a socially engaged curator and arts/heritage consultant whose work centres collaborative practice and community-led creative dialogue. She frequently works with themes relating to migration, legacies of imperialism, forms of healing and the collective re-imagining of place.

Sarmed Mirza (haiku with drawing and painting) is British-Asian multi-disciplinary artist with a background in film & television. Playful curiosity and experimentation are the cornerstones of Sarmed’s art practice. He and his work “raise our vibration”, help us connect to and celebrate our human condition.

Fadzai Mwakutuya (lampshade installation) is a visual artist and curator based on an off-grid peninsula in Westeross, Highlands. Exclusion drew Fadzai into the arts, as she discovered the lack of Black and POC professional artists. Her company, Afro Art Lab, promotes cross-cultural creative work, mainly between Zimbabwe and Scotland.

Some Our Power participants explain what the project means to them, and why you should make sure to visit the exhibition.

“By attending this exhibition, you will deepen your understanding of racism’s pervasive impact, reflect on your own biases, and hopefully contribute to a broader societal change.”

“Through the artwork I am able to raise my voice and speak for the other people who are going through direct racism.”

“Experiencing racial discrimination or microaggression can have a huge impact on a person’s mental and physical wellbeing. This art project and exhibition illustrates how art can help people unlearn misinformation and narrow ways of thinking, while allowing people to think creatively about eliminating or mitigating microaggression and racism.”

With many thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund for funding this project.