Reframing Madness: Arts at the Intersection of Mental Health and Mad Studies

This session aims to reclaim and redefine 'madness', participating in broader efforts that challenge historical pejorative connotations associated with the term. It seeks to contribute to inclusivity by engaging in the academic and cultural discourse surrounding mental health. The goal is to examine madness at the intersection of art and mental health, across diverse cultures and periods, by integrating perspectives from the Mad Studies movement and disability studies.

Acknowledging the concerns about potentially romanticizing or trivializing mental health conditions in artistic expressions, which could detract from the actual challenges faced by vulnerable individuals and communities, the session frames madness as both a socio-cultural construct and first-person accounts communicated via art.

Contributions that research mental health portrayals in art, from historical to contemporary contexts, spanning various artistic movements and styles, and analyzing artworks created by individual artists and through community-led projects, are encouraged.

Key Topics:

• Representations of Madness Throughout Art History
• Decolonizing Madness in Art
  
• Art in Psychiatric Care Settings: From Historical Asylum Art Through Art Therapy to Psychiatry Survivors’ Narratives
• Mad Arts and Outsider Art
• Art Historical Methodologies in Studying Madness
• Neurodiversity and the Arts
• Feminist and Queer Art Theories and Criticism on Gender-Specific Mental Health Conditions
• Contemporary Arts and Explorations in Mental Health
• Curatorial and Exhibition Practices Regarding Mad Arts
• Responsibility and Artistic Freedom in Depictions of Mental Health
• Art as an Agent for Mental Health Understanding and Advocacy