Me first and other quite possible dreams

Lisa Chalkley celebrates some truly inclusive arts projects for people with experience of mental health problems, and looks forward to a time when there is no need to label such events - and there'll be cake for all and no daft comments about axes either...

In my dreams... I'm at an exclusive gathering at Tate Modern. There are hundreds of mental health survivors and service users. The waitresses are whisking away our white china plates as we finish delicacies. A woman joins us. She is having all three types of cake - it's all for free. I wonder whether to check out the live music in the room that has my art on the wall or to watch a short film next. I thank the controller of Channel 5 for choosing to make the news shorter every day for a week, and showing mental health and art films instead.

In my dreams... I'm standing in a gallery. I'm seeing some work by Degas for real, for the first time in my life. The colours make me ecstatic, and I want to run home and start painting. After having a tour exclusive to service users, with a knowledgeable guide, we are taken down to the new café area, where we enjoy tea and smoothies for free. It's the Fitzwilliam Museum, part of the University of Cambridge. We are allowed to go into the library whenever we like and for no charge. I can order any arts and crafts books in the university, one of the premier resources in the world.

In my dreams... Okay, it's not in my dreams at all. It happened last year. I wouldn't have even bothered dreaming about this type of thing. I know there is a new spirit of inclusion and integration - I just thought it would all take about ten to 20 years for the changes to produce concrete results. I think I would have also imagined the activities to be a bit cheap and shabby. To feel tacked on to the organisations - that they would feel different or like a 'special' event, rather than an integral and vibrant part of what galleries were doing. My expectations were very low.

I am not Pollyanna. The effect at the Tate Modern was slightly spoiled for me by over-hearing a conversation between two of the serving staff:

'How has it gone today? Has it been... alright, nothing happened?'

'Well, nobody has come in with an axe or anything.'

That is when I always wish that I kept a small (pretend) axe in my bag, so I could flourish it and say: 'Until now.' That attitude is so bizarrely dated. I mean, nobody even uses axes nowadays, what with central heating.

The Tate Modern event was a first. It was called Creative Minds and provided both a showcase of the arts in mental health around London and a forum for service users and artists to discuss issues and share good practice - whole day of films, workshops and presentations in the Tate Modern's educational space and studios. And cake. We have to have lots and lots of these events. In the end, nobody will make daft comments about axes, because these will be regular events and no longer worthy of passing comment. I hope that the current state of somebody's mental health will only signify that some people may need some extra support and consideration in accessing an event at that particular moment.

I think now is a lovely time to be included in the arts. I have been accessing the museum and studio at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. A very different space that I have also been supported in visiting is Kettles Yard. Kettles Yard consists of a beautifully preserved set of cottages filled with exquisite art and books. Founded by HS Ede, a former curator of the Tate Gallery, he and his wife created a peaceful living space in which to savour and enjoy work. There is also an ever-changing contemporary gallery with a studio space attached. I have really enjoyed devouring and then immediately creating, especially as I have got to use messy materials such as pastels, which you cannot take into gallery spaces. The experiences are all nice and new and shiny, and nobody has written the definitive book yet of how or why it should be done. This means that people are flexible and needs-led.

I found this hard at first, with low expectations and nothing to compare it with. Initially, some mental health access workshops had the education teams using the same workshops that they used for school children. They did use them as a basic framework and were open to ideas and suggestions. After gallivanting around London a few times and being treated like a princess, things became easier to get the hang of. We became able to ask for our needs and desires: 'Can we do this? The Tate Modern did' is a wonderful rallying cry to all the public spaces that now have to provide access, for funding or legal reasons. Places have to provide access for many different groups with very different needs, and partnership working is the only practical way to help people experiencing a huge learning curve. But it is also very good practice in and of itself.

This is also one of the many uses of the 'mad for arts' website (www.madforarts.org). Don't be put off by the name. Some MP went a bit cranky in the press about it being an insensitive title. As one of the service users who voted for the name, I'm still wondering if I am being insensitive to myself. Is it self-harm? Annoying an MP who hasn't noticed the 'Mad For It' phenomenon that has been around since the smiley-faced 80s may mean we are getting it right. If you want to see the vanguard in mental health and arts in the UK, then visit the website. You can then join in with whatever mental health survivors and TABs* are doing, visiting or commenting on, in all areas of art and music. Oh and famous people... I hope it's the only time that my name and Vanessa Feltz's are on the same website. Bless.

The other gorgeous thing about the 'mad for arts' website is that everybody can put their own art in an open studio. Yes, people need IT access and the skills and confidence. These should be available to all, so if you can help a survivor to do this then please do. Once people are up and away, you can find like-minded souls all over the country and discuss your inner spaces and experiences. Once the trappings of cost, geography and safety are looked after by a well run website, it opens up a world that could not have existed before. I could never have had conversations with photographers from up north. My benefits would not have stretched to the train fare and the mini-bar. Most importantly, it is for all people to talk about art that has touched them or moved them. It provides a gateway for all people to talk about their inner lives. I believe this is important for everybody's mental health and expanding and enriching being human and being all that you can be.

True inclusion isn't about just getting to join in with some mythical 'well' society that is running in parallel with those of us struggling along with our mental health and troubled lives. It's having those connections and conversations that we all need. The insights and experiences of someone who has lived life on the edge are different in terms of quantity, rather than the quality of pain, loneliness and suffering or, indeed, of profound joy or connection that can be experienced when the human mind is surviving in extremes. Everybody benefits from something a little richer, juicier and more alive. The more we can listen, bear and empathise with, the more facets of ourselves and our potential are available. Like in Little Britain, you get to be the prejudiced and uptight woman at the tea party AND Vicky Pollard AND get in touch with your inner Andy who Pretends to be Disabled. You have to recognise those parts of yourself and own them. Only then can you move flexibly between different roles and create roles that you like. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Now we can see them for free and I love it.

* I love this phrase, coined by American activists with physical disabilities. It stands for the Temporarily Able Bodied. Cruel maybe, but very nice comment on labelling, the fragility of all life, and not having able bodied as a default for 'normal' from which the rest of us are defined as 'other'.

Lisa Chalkley first came into contact with mental health services at the age of 12 and is still working at her eventual escape, even though she is now 33 years old. The changes in mental health services in the last couple of years have meant that she has finally been given a useful diagnosis and a treatment package that is working. Lisa has completed her first five months in a job that has nothing to do with mental health whatsoever - the first in 16 years. Arts and activism are a perennial interest. As a group of artists at the Cambridge Clubhouse, she is working towards the first Open Studio in a mental health space in their area. Lisa has also been asked to represent service users on the management board of the Richmond Employment Fellowship Trust. Her artwork can be seen in the studio of LisaCx on www.madforarts.org, where messages can be left. She is also a member of the 'mad for arts' advisory panel. Snail mail can reach her at the Cambridge Clubhouse, 47 Norfolk Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LD.

Copyright Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd. May 2005
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