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The Whitechapel Gallery is committed to making our events as accessible as possible for every audience member. Please contact access@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
Information about access on site at the gallery is available here: Whitechapel Gallery Access. This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
Access Information
– This event is suitable for those over the age of 12
– This event will approximately 90 minutes.
– A quiet space will be provided, available for anyone who wishes to access this.
– A trained mental health professional will be present at the event
– There will be a variety of seating options such as beanbags, blankets and benches. There are no rest breaks currently scheduled during this event, but you will be able to move around, or leave the room and come back if you wish.
– There will be live performances and a captioned film.
– BSL interpretation will be available for this event.
– Simple refreshments will be provided.
– Please be aware that this event will feature discussion of mental health and experiences of mental health services, and may include references to experiences of disability, racism, sexism, queer phobia, classism and other systemic violences
Transport
– To the best of our knowledge, there are no planned disruptions to local transport on the date of the event.
– Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min walk) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min walk), Shoreditch High Street (15 min walk) or Liverpool Street (15 min walk).
– Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
Performance |12 August | 4-5.30pm | Free
“We deserve spaces for expression
For calm, for chaos, for art, for love.
Spaces in between the business of life – to just be,
to just exist, to just thrive.
We deserve to be more than just a tick in a box –
“you fit this, you fit that”. Now you are defined
forever by the label they give you, but you must wait,
wait, wait, wait…
I’m still waiting” – Balmy Army
Over the past six months, more than 30 young people connected to Tower Hamlets have been dismantling and reimagining mental health support.
Responding to two questions – ‘How do we make change?’ and ‘How do we make decisions?’ – the group has been critically considering how their own creativity and making can build new aesthetics of care, art and community, and challenging how and who makes decisions in the lives of the young people’s mental health.
These young artists are anchoring themselves as trailblazers and decision-makers within the artistic and curatorial processes through image-making, text, movement, performance, moving image and music.
Join them for an informal sharing of what they have been imagining and making together – a space for mutual care, safety and radical visions of mental health. Expect messy, fragmented, troubling, joyful vulnerability displayed within the Whitechapel Gallery walls, floors and stages.
Balmy Army (Amina Jama, Cecilia Wee and the vacuum cleaner).
This event is the culmination of the second phase of 2.8 Million Minds and is a joint production between Chisenhale Gallery, the vacuum cleaner and Whitechapel Gallery, with support from the Mayor of London and the Baring Foundation
Please be aware that this event will feature discussion of mental health and experiences of mental health services, and may include references to experiences of disability, racism, sexism, queer phobia, classism and other systemic violences
With more and more young people struggling with their mental health in London, 2.8 Million Minds is a process to support young people to make art and activism that changes how mental health is experienced and supported.
Creating healthy and bold ways for young people to lead, mental health disabled artists and diverse arts organisations are working together to attempt to imagine and make real spaces for mutual care, safety and radical visions of mental health. A multi year approach, building from the local to the whole capital, 2.8 Million Minds is led by artist and activist the vacuum cleaner, alongside partners including Chisenhale Gallery, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, and Whitechapel Gallery, and is being supported by the Mayor of London’s culture team.
We are taking and are inspired by disability justice and mad pride approaches to mental health. Asking ‘how can young Londoners can use art to begin to radically re-imagine mental health support, justice and pride?’.
