This publication is a summary of Outside In’s ‘New Dialogues’ project. New Dialogues was a two-year programme generously funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Art Fund and the John Ellerman Foundation and delivered by Outside In in partnership with Glasgow Museums, Glenside Hospital Museum (Bristol), and the Mental Health Museum (Wakefield).
The project focused on supporting over 30 artists to gain the skills needed to explore, research and interpret collections that relate to the history of mental health and mental health treatment in the UK. In doing so, projects delivered in three geographical locations have facilitated those who perhaps have their own lived experience of mental health issues and the mental health system to reinterpret the work. This has enabled the participants to bring their own unique understanding, expertise and new perspectives to the collections and raising the question of who has the authority to interpret and talk about these works.
