Mindful Art Corners
Mindful Art Corners (MAC)
Created in 2014 at the University of Alberta (UofA), MAC reaches out to the greater student body and connects students with art. About 14,000 (~36%) students at the UofA felt so depressed that it was difficult to function1. Half or about 20,000 students felt things were hopeless and over 60% (or about 24,000) felt very lonely1. We hope to give students an outlet to de-stress and socialize while trying to encourage mindfulness. Our goal is to help all students from various backgrounds with art; therefore, our activities are made to be inclusive. With the help of various student group collaborations and our volunteer team, we reconnect students to themselves and their community.
Keywords:
outreach program
youth
community-building
campus
mental health
Source:
1 Student Mental Health at the University of Alberta: An Overview, revised October 2015. University of Alberta's National College Health Assessment (NCHA) data, Spring 2013.
How does MAC work?
Growing up, more of our responsibilities can begin to accumulate and become stressors in our life* ...
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leaving little time for us to develop and explore our internal self, we slowly become disconnected...
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by doing simple art activities with one another, we hope to re-connect with our internal self and our community
*Note: We understand that everyone has mental health and it is as important, if not more, than physical health. It is complex and the stigma or illness associated with it cannot be just alleviated with doing art activites. With such a fast-paced life we live, our aim is to provide a respectful and inclusive space where our peers have an opportunity to use art to express, to create, and to re-connect with their inner selves and broader community.
As we continue on our journey to create positive change, we hope you will join us too.
If you would like to help with this movement
please consider joining our team, sharing your ideas, or just spreading this message on social media.
