We Believe…

… that people with serious mental illnesses (particularly Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, which effect a majority of our patients) can be creative and productive.

Our Goals

The STEP art gallery displays artwork and poetry by inpatients and clinic outpatients from the UNC STEP program. We hope to decrease the stigma associated with mental illness and demonstrate our patients’ creative talents. Our opening reception was held in January 2001 for approximately 20 patient-artists and their families. Almost 200 other guests helped make the celebration a success -- hospital staff, patients, members of the media and representatives from various mental health organizations and agencies in our community. Our second exhibition ran from July 2001 to January 2002, and our third exhibition will be installed in early February 2002.

Current Areas of Focus

Visual Art
Poetry and Songs
Fabric Art

We display many different types of art including watercolor, acrylics, oil, pencil paintings and sketches, as well as poetry, songs, fabric art, and photography.

The gallery and our patient-artists have received a great deal of media attention. The gallery has been featured on North Carolina Now with UNC Public Television, National Public Radio, the Independent, the News and Observer, and in the UNC Daily Tar Heel. The Associated Press also featured the gallery and several artists in a story which ran nationwide.

Our Life Span

The idea for the gallery originated with Recreation Therapist Wen Crenshaw who also led our committee through nine months of hard work in the creation of the gallery. By December 2000 the art gallery was complete, including installation of our permanent frames, track lighting, plus the artwork and poetry by STEP patients.

The gallery is open to the public during normal hospital visiting hours.

We Receive Funding From

…a variety of sources.
The UNC Hospital Facility Enhancement Budget paid for the purchase and installation of permanent frames, matting, signage, and track lighting.
The STEP program covered miscellaneous expenses.
Our opening reception was sponsored by a drug company.
We also accept donations.

All STEP Art Gallery committee members are volunteers.
The committee consists of staff from our inpatient unit which include psychiatrists, nurses, occupational and recreational therapists. A patient-artist from the STEP program and a UNC Hospital interior designer are also on our committee.
A public relations representative from the UNC Dept of Psychiatry is quite involved in fundraising and communicating with the media.

We would love to hear from you

UNC STEP Art Gallery
E-mail: stepart@med.unc.edu

Nancy Clayton, MD
UNC Dept of Psychiatry CB #7160
Chapel Hill NC 27599-7160.
Nancy_Clayton@med.unc.edu

Click on our own website for more information. We are creating a website to allow people to view our gallery online.

Information about the STEP program is currently on the UNC Department of Psychiatry web site: www.psychiatry.unc.edu

Acknowledgements:

This project received support from the North Carolina Arts Council,
an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the
National Endowment for the Arts.

We are also grateful for the support of the
Mary Duke Biddle Foundation and the Durham Arts Council.

Last Updated November 25, 2005

Copyright 2001 - 2006, All rights reserved. NC Arts for Health