Park staff try ‘Gugging’ for mental health

Staff and volunteers at a Fife park have been getting back to nature in an unusual way as they mark Mental Health Awareness Week.

Workers at Silverburn Park in Leven are creating art from natural resources, based on the Gugging way of working from Austria.

Art student Drew Walker and his dad Rab are using the therapy to support mental health recovery and protect wellbeing.

Participants are encouraged to talk frankly about their mental health as they explore their innate artist – even if it is out of their comfort zone.

The process ties in with the theme of this year’s awareness week, which is nature.

Gugging began at the Maria Gugging Psychiatric Clinic where patients became known for their Outsider Art. They are now known as the Gugging Artists.

Today, several artists live in a dedicated art centre, known as the House of

Artists, which also includes the Museum Gugging and Gallery Gugging.

David Bowie and Brian Eno visited in the 1990s, the result being an album named Outside.

Drew is studying for a PHD at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee.

He has lived experience of serious mental health problems and the programme he has developed is proven to help others as it did him in his darkest times.

Drew dropped out of college for three years and withdrew from everything.

However, he was drawn to the Gugging idea that art can help people by providing them with a way of life, a community and a source of income.

And he now hopes to see the method used more widely across Scotland

alongside treatments.

“I think what it offers could be a complement, an extension to what is already on offer, that moves into real life,” he said.

“The strapline for Gugging is ‘Living in Real Art’.”

Drew eventually managed to return to college and said the real existing

recovery began when he was creating art again.

He now wants to help others and is leading small groups at Silverburn, which is managed by mental health charity Fife Employment Access Trust (Feat).

Feat is also hosting a wild weaving workshop as part of Mental Health Awareness Week.

REACHING OUT: Workers at Silverburn Park are hoping to support mental health recovery.