A UCLA student art gallery focusing on themes of mental health and wellness will be open to the public this week.
The gallery, titled Piece of Mind, opened Sunday night in Kerckhoff Art Gallery and features different forms of art, including paintings, photography and short stories that attempt to offer a new take on mental illness.
“This gallery is another way for those with mental illnesses to present their stories,” said fourth-year psychology student TK Truong. “Also, art is a much more digestible way to tackle the issue of mental illness awareness.”
Active Minds, a committee in the Undergraduate Students Association Council Student Wellness Commission, organizes a mental health-themed art gallery each spring, said Truong, the committee’s co-director.
The goal of the gallery is to allow all students, regardless of experience or skill, to share their art and to encourage art as a form of therapy for those with mental illness, Truong said.
The Entertainment Industries Council, which seeks to create responsible media portrayals of mental illness, screened one of the finalist films from its annual film competition at the gallery’s opening Sunday.
Piece of Mind will be open until the end of Week 10 in Kerckhoff Art Gallery.
Compiled by Joseph Vescera, Bruin contributor.