The first Living Museum was founded in New York.
The Living Museum was founded in 1983 by Janos Marton, a Hungarian artist and psychologist, and Bolek Greczynski, a Polish artist.
They were influenced by the European art scene, for example, the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg and the Gugging Artists' House in Klosterneuburg near Vienna.
As a building for the Living Museum, Marton and Greczynski arranged for a restoration building by the management of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Clinic in Queens, New York, located on the extensive grounds of the hospital.
It formerly housed a huge kitchen and 20 dining rooms for 1,000 patients. They renovated it and gradually filled it with life and art.
The project consists of creating art residencies where participants can develop their work in an environment based on respect and tolerance.
Living Museum already has several replicas around the world, New York, Switzerland, Germany and others.
The Living Museum Madrid project aims to create art spaces that promote social inclusion, foster wellbeing and help reduce the stigma suffered by people with some type of mental health diagnosis or other diversity.
Living Museum Madrid is based on the original project that was born in New York in 1983 as a movement committed to the creation of spaces for artistic experimentation for the inclusion of people with mental health problems and other diversities, one of the main objectives of this program being their personal and professional resignification through art.
The project is committed to creating a work space where people can recognize themselves through their passion for art, promoting their artistic career and fostering safe and stress-free spaces, adapted to the individual needs and rhythms of each participant. In addition, this work group is proposed as a place for socialization through art, where dialogue and artistic exchange are encouraged, narratives of life towards health are generated and the creation of support networks is promoted. Living Museum already has several replicas around the world, New York, Switzerland, Germany and others.
● Create and disseminate art spaces for people with mental health diagnoses and/or intellectual disability condition as an improvement of their health and a space for personal creative development.
● To promote art as a space for cultural and social encounters in Spain.
● To offer an innovative yet proven response to mental health issues using art as the ultimate vehicle and tool.
● Encourage the change of identity from "sick person" to "artist" thus helping to improve the health of its participants.
● Help reduce the stigmatization of having a mental health diagnosis.
● Create a space where people can dedicate their time to realize their personal and professional artistic project, instead of waiting and being isolated.
● To offer the necessary support so that people can carry out their personal and professional artistic projects and develop their life projects.
● Accompany people in the development of their creativity and artistic experimentation.
● Provide a stress-free relational and creative space.
● To offer cultural space within the city, of a dynamic, inclusive and participatory nature.
Julia / Laura / Javi / Ana / Hanne /Hanne