I have suffered from mental health problems since I was a teenager. I am now nearly sixty years old. I have been diagnosed with various psychiatric disorders and spent many years in the old asylums. I was discharged from Stone House hospital in the 1990’s but have found the community unsympathetic and hostile. I decided to try and find employment in the community under the therapeutic work laws, with the permission of the social security as no-one would employ me full time because of my mental health problems. I visited the Bethlem Royal Museum and met Patricia Alleridge who was then curator. Later assistant curator Colin Gale who suggested I visited the art therapy department where I met art therapist Karen Risby and Bethlem Gallery director Beth Elliott who took an interest in my work after I had shown her some postcard prints of my pictures. I started to visit the gallery sometimes watching over the gallery when there were no staff available. Beth and Karen arranged for me to show my work in my own exhibitions first at the Bethlem Gallery then at the Institute of Psychiatry. Though I have had to endure harassment in the community staff at the Bethlem Royal hospital have been supportive during these problems and I have been able to sell enough work to help pay with expenses.  

But it is not just because they have helped me that I am nominating The Bethlem Gallery for the ‘All in the Mind 25th anniversary award. The Bethlem Gallery has helped many other artists who suffer from long term mental illness show and sell work which in turn give these patients a sense of worth and empowerment. The work of Bethlem Artists can be seen on the Bethlem Gallery website.

Bethlem Royal hospital has always had a strong connection with the art world. Louis Wain and Richard Dadd are the artists associated with the museum. The museum also home to the work of Cynthia Pell and many lesser known artists who despite their illness have produced visual art. Bethlem Royal was the first hospital to show the art of the mentally ill in 1901 and again in 1913 and soon after similar exhibitions took place in France at Germany. 
The mentally ill have seldom been given the credit they deserve, It could be argued that artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Edvard Munch, who both suffered mental torment, helped free the canvas for the contemporary artists of the twentieth century. Sadly the mentally ill remain stigmatised by a society that still believes the myths of mental illness rather than the reality. If the public were aware of the contribution that the mentally ill have made to the art world they might start to overcome their prejudices. Now that the NICE guidelines acknowledge the therapeutic value of art for the mentally ill I hope that this nomination is successful as the service provided by the Bethlem Gallery is more important than ever.