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S anctuary for the spiritArt can both maintain emotional wellbeing and provide an outlet during times of mental turmoil. Jessica Holland exploresArt is the greatest asset to mental health that I have,” the artist Grayson Perry said in a speech in 2015. He described his creative practice as “obsession, voyage of discovery and therapy, all rolled into one.”The event the artist was talking at was the formal launch of the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, of which he is patron, in March 2015. The museum is in the grounds of the famous Bethlem Royal Hospital, once known by its nickname“Bedlam”. Originally founded just outside the Wall of London in 1247, it now sprawls across 270 green acres in Beckenham, Kent.An art gallery was established at the hospital in 1997 to showcase the work of artists who had received care there, and the Museum of the Mind now shares the same Art Deco building. It contains archival materials from across the hospital’s more than 750-year history, as well as hosting exhibitions by artists who have experienced difficulties with their mental health.“Our overarching mission,” says museum director Suzie Walker-Millar, “is to destigmatise mental health issues and raise questions concerning perceptions about what’s normal and abnormal. We’re interested in 1 Vincent van Gogh, Green Wheat Fields, Auvers, 189034ART AND THE MINDThe Arts Society ReviewSummer 2017