Bloom by Anna Schuleit

Flower Power – Nature and Art in the Psychiatric Ward

It’s World Mental Health Day and we’re taking this opportunity to re-publish the first in a series of features which originally appeared on The Fine Line Project website. Here we highlight links to a thoughtful and thought provoking article by Amelia Rachel Hokule’a Borofsky, Psy.D., a community and clinical psychologist based in Hawaii. She teaches at Hawaii Pacific University and writes about health across different cultures.

This piece also revolves around a ground-breaking – quite literally, in a manner of speaking – art exhibit entitled Bloom. Commissioned in 2003 to commemorate the closure of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center (MMHC), a former psychiatric training centre and hospital, Anna Schuleit created a fragile and temporary yet immensely powerful art installation in the emptied space using 28,000 potted plants.

Read the article here with thanks to The Atlantic, Amelia Rachel Hokule’a Borofsky and the artist Anna Schuleit (now Anna Schuleit Haber). Further links below.

Anna Schuleit BLOOM The connecting hallway between the historic part of MMHC and the research annex was covered in blue African Violets photo John Gray

Anna Schuleit BLOOM – The connecting hallway between the historic part of MMHC and the research annex was covered in blue African Violets, photo John Gray

BLOOM-by-Anna-Schuleit-orange-Tulips

Anna Schuleit BLOOM Treatment rooms on the first floor, with orange tulips

BLOOM BY Anna Schuleit - the Child Psychiatry unit with white tulips, photo John Gray

Anna Schuleit BLOOM – the Child Psychiatry unit with white tulips, photo John Gray

BLOOM by Anna Schuleit, Red Regina Mums in the hallway that was the last one to close – it used to be one of the busiest homeless shelters in Boston. (Anna Schuleit)

Anna Schuleit BLOOM – red Regina Mums in the hallway that was the last one to close – it used to be one of the busiest homeless shelters in Boston. (Anna Schuleit)

Find out more about Anna Schuleit’s work on her website. Find out more about BLOOM and the MMHC. Where credited images are © John Gray. Other images © Anna Schuleit. NB This article has been edited and updated since the original was published on The Fine Line Project website in November 2012.

Information about World Mental Health day and this year’s focus, which is on mental health in the workplace, can be found on the World Health Organization’s dedicated pages.