How it Started

Led by the Illinois Association of Museums in partnership with NAMI Illinois, the project joined our state’s museum and mental health communities to harness the power of both and reach shared audiences in new ways. Collaboration between these sectors opens the door to marginalized populations disengaged from one of these two domains, allowing audiences from each to experience reflection and support from the other. IAM and NAMI Illinois combined resources to target community-specific mental health issues. Ultimately, this project serves as a collaborative model for the museum and mental health sectors, laying the groundwork to serve their communities in new and relevant ways.

In May 2023, three unique partner museums then hosted an exhibit along with either one or more experiences or events focused on a relevant mental health topic. Each partner represented a unique type of institution, and the three exhibits ran simultaneously for the duration of the month at three partner museums in an urban, rural, and suburban location. Each museum’s chosen format and content is tailored to their needs, capabilities and demographics.

This model demonstrates its universal value by highlighting our common theme across location, discipline and populations served. We chose sites that reflected urban, rural, and suburban communities to reflect a wide background and audience pool. We believe the strength of this partnership could pave the way for both museums and mental health organizations to deepen their connections within their own communities and engage new, harder-to-reach participants in each sector.