Interview: OOSOOM on Saving Lives, Found Family, and the Fight for Future Funding

In its 13th year, celebrating the work of almost 400 people, the Edinburgh- based exhibition Out of Sight Out of Mind (OOSOOM) was not allocated funding. Symbolic of cuts across Scotland’s art world, the loss seems particularly poignant for an exhibition that supports people with mental health issues. We chat to two members of the planning team, Steph Wilson-Shaw and Lauren Stonebanks, to explore what an event like this means and the implications of the lack of funding.

OOSOOM has been running for 13 years. How and when did you become involved?

Lauren Stonebanks: My partner was asked to submit his photography to the CAPS [Consultation and Advocacy Promotion Service] exhibition that was part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival in 2012. I was starting to feel left out and said, ‘I could make something.’

I created a clock where each number represented aspects of the diagnosis I had at the time – borderline personality disorder. From there, my partner and I were asked to join the planning committee for OOSOOM, and I am now the only remaining member from the original planning group.

Steph Wilson-Shaw: I studied art at university but stumbled across OOSOOM because a friend had work in the exhibition. As a teenager I’d struggled with depression, and the exhibition was the first time I’d come across exploring mental health support in ways other than through medication.

It was the first time I felt art was more accessible and that I saw art as some sort of therapy. The exhibition helped provide access to all kinds of support.

What does your current role with the planning committee involve?

Lauren: We don’t have roles per se – it’s very much non-hierarchical. We have a paid development worker from CAPS, and in the run-up to the exhibition we maybe have a couple of exhibition assistants or media assistants, but the rest of the committee are all volunteers.

We do as much as we can or want to within this role. Even if someone has no experience, there’s always something they can contribute, and we help people learn as they go. I tend to joke that my role is professional troublemaker or chaos coordinator!

Steph: It’s not just planning that we do. With Edinburgh University we did a presentation to raise awareness of the exhibition and about what collaborative working can look like when you break down the barriers of stigma, hierarchy, and what true advocacy looks like.

How do people get involved?

Lauren: People can join the planning committee or they might just choose to exhibit their artwork. We also really need volunteers to do practical tasks like painting plinths or moving artwork. Volunteers can also help with invigilation.

Steph: We don’t want to restrict people’s voice, so people can submit artworks in whatever medium or media works for the exhibitor to express what they want to say.

What has being part of the planning team and exhibition meant to you personally?

Lauren: It’s everything. It saved my life. It’s given me something to look forward to and something to work towards. It’s given me confidence to speak out and challenge my diagnosis. This led to being put on the right medication, and it’s absolutely changed my life. It’s also a found family. There’s nothing else like this!

Steph: With my autism, I find social things difficult, so the only time I go out in the year is for the exhibition. Every year it’s such a privilege to be exposed to what other people share, and you learn more about yourself through other people’s experiences, diagnoses, and happinesses.

When people are vulnerable and share in that depth it makes you feel so much closer, but when you see yourself reflected in these spaces it makes you feel a part of something. It has a true understanding of what participation looks like to different people and how that can be supported.

Lauren: It is a way for me to explain mental health or neurodivergent stuff and other people get it. I always felt so alone as a brown, non-binary, queer person that when people see my artwork and tell me that this makes them feel seen, I’m almost in tears.

If you feel able to, can you comment on how the withdrawal of funding has impacted the team and what it will mean for the future of the exhibition?

Steph: It’s not just incredibly sad but also disappointing. We’ve worked so hard and for so long to establish a practice and way of working that is inherently good and has so much value.

We’ve got a blueprint to show others how to work with people and this has just been sidelined when the funding wasn’t renewed. When you work with a group of people who already feel sidelined and dismissed, it feels like another layer of disregard.

As much as we want to self-organise and carry on, the more we do, the more the government feels they don’t have to do it. But it needs to be valued at that level, because it is life-saving. I’ve been on antidepressants for most of my life and the exhibition has done more for me than any of that ever has. The lack of value in that is systemically a problem in society.

This was the only good thing that existed for me and allowed me to feel safe to be me. I’ve been struggling, since that, to figure out how I fit in the world and carry on, because it was a part of my coping strategy.

Lauren: Some of the groups that submit artwork – it’s something they look forward to all year, and with it being gone, they are devastated too.

How can people support OOSOOM and ensure it continues?

Lauren: The GoFundMe is still open and accepting donations [to raise money and produce an event] as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival in October and November this year. People can also support by sharing the GoFundMe, the website, and their experiences of the exhibition, as well as any grant opportunities.

Steph: Even if there isn’t an exhibition, there will be a space where people can share their feelings and come together.

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Photo credit: Chris Scott