Mar. 31 saw the closing of an exhibit which provoked the feelings of hopelessness and personal struggle in Holden Fine Art’s KRUK Gallery. The University of Wisconsin-Superior’s Human Behavior, Justice and Diversity Department hosted two local artists’ relationships with mental health and medical advocation with their traveling mixed media collaborative exhibit, “Waiting for Bed.” An exhibit which focused on mental health care accessibility, it also provided honest insight about the artists own personal struggles.
“Waiting for Beds” gallery reception was on Mar. 7. Community, UWS students, local artist, and Alums attended the event. | Photo by Drew Kerner
“It just started with shared experiences,” said Local Duluth Artist Carla Hamilton. “We (Moria Villiard) were just talking about her as a care giver and me as a woman of color as we navigated through the health system, about trying to be your own advocate when you’re sick. Which is very difficult.”
Against the dark grey walls of the gallery lies expressionistic, mixed, and intruding artworks compiled by Hamilton and her gallery partner and another Duluth-based Artist and UWS Alum Moria Villiard.
Hamilton is known for her mixed-media pieces, often blending incorporating collage. Meanwhile, Villiard works more traditionally with painting, more familiar with murals, graphic design, indigenous illustrations, and surrealism.
“This is the first body of work where I sort of leaned into the mixed media approach,” said Villiard. “We tried to make a wholistic vantage point for people to come in and enter the world of crisis in our society from multiple lens.”
Presented with the gallery show, Villiard printed on banners statistically data about St. Louis and Douglas Counties response to people in crisis and other facts about mental health in our area. | Photo by Drew Kerner
“Waiting for Beds” is a collective response about our region’s lack of crisis response in healthcare. Often people are left alone without any support until they’re amidst a crisis, something that the exhibit explains with visual data collected by UWS Social Work and Interdisciplinary Studies Professor Lynn Goerdt.
Torn banners in the middle of the main room, dangled downwards with messages like, “homeless shelter,” “treatment,” “survival sex,” “basement,” etc., are representative about the unfavorable and sometimes self-destructing choices that people make in extreme crisis.
Another piece of art on display, titled “Melrose,” presents numerous empty prescription and admission wrist bands from Hamilton.
“Melrose” by Carla Hamilton; mixed media | Photo by Drew Kerner
“I like taking a lot of things from my experiences and put them in,” said Hamilton. “I use my hospital papers, the art that I make while I was in the hospital, I collect napkins and buttons, all these memories and put them on paper.”
Past the colorful and self-reflective artwork, lies a deeper narrative of a larger community’s struggling access to crisis response. A topic relevant to the Twin Ports region, which has been under resourced and notably tends to invest in response over prevention.
“The art that’s in here is beautiful and it speaks really nicely to the subject that it’s about,” said Alayna Kilgore, a UWS social work student. “As someone who works in the mental health field, it’s really nice to see that expressed in a different way that is more than words on a page.”
Special Guests speaker speaking out about their experiences living through, overcoming, and working alongside people experiencing mental health crisis’. From Left to Right: Artist Moria Villiard, UWS Director of Health, Counseling & Well-Being Randy Barker, and NAMI LSSS President Crissy Barnard. | Photo by Drew Kerner
On Mar. 21, the UWS Human Behavior, Justice and Diversity Department held a community discussion about the mental health struggles in Douglas County. Villiard was a special guest speaker at the event alongside Randy Barker, UWS director of health, counseling & well-being, and Crissy Barnard, president of National Alliance on Mental Illness Lake Superior South Shore (NAMI LSSS).
“The system is really broken and traumatizing,” said Barnard at the community discussion. “We need more resources that are trauma informed.”
“Listening other people who work in this field always expands my knowledge and interpretation of this show,” Villiard said after the discussion. “That question of what would the world or just America looks like if people didn’t have to wait for a bed.”
Numerous student submissions were also on display in the gallery. According to both artists, these submitted pieces have traveled with the exhibit and can be given back to artists at their request. | Photo by Drew Kerner
The exhibit also showcases submitted artwork from other local artists with a focus on mental health and the access to care. Artwork can still be submitted to the gallery and can be pulled out of the show at any time.
“Waiting for Beds” explicitly shows mental health struggles that reside within the Twin Ports our greater region, but the exhibit implicitly asks what can we do to change? “We want to let people know that it’s really hard to be your own advocate and be patient when you are sick and, in a crisis,” said Hamilton. “Maybe this will remind people to help advocate for people and help them.”
“Waiting for Beds” was open from Mar. 7-31. The exhibit is set open next at the Washburne Culture Center in Washburn, WI, Apr. 1-30. For more information, submit artwork, or to see where the gallery is currently at, visit: waitingforbeds.com.
