Village News

Part seven in a series on the roles of museums

Museum as a mental health well-spring is one of the most recent roles for museums. As we see our society become more anxious and fragmented, finding more places to heal and discover wholeness is important.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has had art therapists on its payroll for years. They are now working with doctors to provide admission to their museum for those patients who can benefit from it. Director and Chief Curator Nathalie Bondil says, ‘taking in the art with loved ones is key to the treatment, the simple act of getting out and focusing on something other than their condition can work wonders on a patient’s outlook. It can cause a release of hormones, that is otherwise difficult to attain for those with chronic pain who have trouble maintaining regular physical activity.’

With their long-standing historic setting and presentation of the past community, museums can help people develop a wider collective sense of relationship, belonging, order and time. We are not alone – not by a long shot.

In addition to our historic buildings, artefacts and stories, Mennonite Heritage Village (MHV) has peaceful grounds that can help people feel like they are worlds away even though they are within the limits of a city. Currently we have plans to build a pergola with a peace garden near the pond. Could this area be developed to help people find deeper calm?

Most people with mental issues need a soft place to land, a place where they are safe, where they can begin to feel and think again beyond their present pain. Society offers plenty of places to numb or escape in an unhealthy way, but in a museum there is a positive opportunity to escape from the speed of the daily grind. Think of MHV as an open-air cathedral; the kind that you can enter off a busy urban street and immediately feel the hush that says there is more to life.

We often think that mental illness has been a taboo topic in Mennonite communities, but already in the early 1900’s Russian Mennonites were concerned about those in their midst suffering from mental hardship. Feeling that they should not be neglected, Bethania Mental Hospital was built in 1910. In Canada, Mennonite churches came together to establish the Eden Mental Health Centre in 1966. Now, every year MHV has a joint fundraiser with Eden Health called the ‘Tractor Trek’. Next year this event may expand to include a wellness fair. Our health as a people is an on-going vital matter.

While museums are not a primary treatment for mental health, they can certainly complement it. Let us know how MHV can become a well-spring for good mental health in our region. We want to do more!