ARTISTS with mental health problems will be showing their creative flair at two exhibitions which are designed to help them recover and shatter the stigma around mental illness.

Shrub Hill Workshop – Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust – and AIMs – Art in Minds – have joined forces to stage two art exhibitions to celebrate World Mental Health Day which is on Wednesday. The first exhibition opens today in Cafe Bliss and the Cellar Galleries at the Worcester Arts Workshop, Sansome Street, from 6pm to 8pm.

The second display will open at the Cotswold Gallery, University of Worcester, Henwick Grove, on Wednesday from 11.30am to 2pm. Both run for a month.

Jayne Gaze, resident artist at the Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust workshop, said: “In 1859 Florence Night-ingale, the founder of modern nursing, wrote that beautiful objects and brilliancy of colour are actual means of recovery.

“Modern practitioners of art and occupational therapy agree and believe that recovery from a huge variety of ills, both physical and mental, can be aided and accelerated using the therapeutic values of art.”

The Shrub Hill Workshop and AIMs supports the development of artistic skills and individual talent and believes that given a creative environment, tuition, resources, support and encouragement, each person has the potential to achieve.

Further information is available from jaynegaze@ hacw.nhs.uk, by calling 01905 619633 or 610934 or you can visit the AIMs website which is at artinminds.org.uk.