Thesis paper on how can art cure mental illness

Oliana Ren ARS Fashion October 12, 2020

Research Proposal

Keywords: Memory, Relationships, Mental, Object, Personal

Working Research Question: How is art/fashion affecting people’s mental health? Can art/

fashion cure mental illness? What process does it take?

Introduction

The ultimate goal of this research is to eventually create a collection that is focused on

curing mental illness. I want to start this research by first looking into ways that fashion/art affect

people’s mental health, and finding examples of methods that art/fashion cure mental illness.

I am planning on looking at specific case studies for how art cure mental illness, such as

“Art Lift”, “Thursday at the Museum”, and etc…(to be continued). Through these case studies, I

want to generate the key element for art to be able to cure mental illness, and from there, develop

ways that I could interpret into the making of my collection.

I want to keep this research as personal as possible. I would consider doing interviews if

possible to enrich the content of my research. I would gather personal stories and objects, since

my second focus is on how to cure a broken heart through fashion. A broken heart can be caused

by a broken relationship, a lost of family members, and more. I would also look into “Museum of

Broken Relationships” to analyze how objects contain sentimental values, and how can we reuse

these object. I would want my collection to focus on mending and redefining objects that held

sentimental values. For example, turning a deceased grandmother’s dress into something

wearable, giving these memorial objects new life.

Bibliography (for now)

1. Crone, Diane M, Elaine E O'Connell, Phillip J Tyson, Frances Clark-Stone, Simon Opher, and David V.B James. “Art Lift”Intervention to Improve Mental Well-Being: An Observational Study from UK General Practice. International journal of mental health nursing, 3, 22 (2013) p. 279-286

This article focused on an intervention for art to cure mental illness. The intervention is about 10 weeks, with eight artists in a sorts of creative arts activities.

2. Beauchet, Olivier, Liam Cooper-Brown, Yoko Hayashi, Kevin Galery, Christine Vilcocq, and Thomas Bastien. “Effects of ‘Thursdays at the Museum’ at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on the Mental and Physical Health of Older Community Dwellers: the Art- Health Randomized Clinical Trial Protocol.” Trial 21, no. 1 (2020).