about us

As a multi-faceted organization, The Awakenings Project’s mission is to support all artistic endeavors by people with a lived experience of mental illness. Today, it most actively exhibits and sells fine art and publishes an award-winning literary journal (The Awakenings Review). The forerunner of the Project, The Awakenings Art Show, debuted in 1997 at National Alliance for Mental Illness of Illinois and was a regular activity of the group for many years.

We are people who know mental illness firsthand. The Awakenings Project serves a distinctive population. Only a handful of organizations other than The Awakenings Project curate art shows of this kind at national or local venues. Moreover, there exists only a few literary magazines, other than The Awakenings Review, that are committed as we are to editors, artists, writers and poets with mental illnesses.

THE HEALING POWER OF CREATIVITY

People familiar with mental illnesses understand the loss of purpose and self-esteem which accompany them. The arts can heal many of these wounds, providing people with hope, purpose, and a sense of identity.

THE SUPPORT OF COMMUNITY

When artists, writers, musicians, and thespians join together in a creative activity, the communal association alone has healing power. Fundamentally it helps people overcome rejection and isolation.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETENCE

As a natural outcome, The Awakenings Project enhances artistic skills and rewards expertise. Artists learn to exhibit their work competently, writers learn to submit their work professionally, editors and production staff learn to publish a journal, musicians learn to write songs and record music, and playwrights learn to organize readings.

A HISTORY OF GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY

One of our greatest rewards is serving others and contributing to the community. For several years, we conducted weekly creativity workshops with residents of Wheaton Care Center nursing home. With support from a grant we received in 2008 from Hinsdale Center for the Arts, we were able to expand our nursing homes project to include DuPage County Convalescent Center.

OUR BEGINNINGS

The Awakenings Art Show—the forerunner of The Awakenings Project—was conceived in 1996 when Robert Lundin, then member of the board of directors of National Alliance on Mental Illness of Illinois (NAMI-IL), became involved with the planning committee for NAMI-IL's annual convention. Intrigued and inspired by the work of Kay Redfield Jamison (Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, 1993), he and the founders of Awakenings believed an art show would give NAMI an activity by which it could sustain its “consumer” constituency.

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