GET INVOLVED: NEW PROJECT ON ART FOR MENTAL HEALTH!

🇸🇳🎨 A new initiative for 2026! 👉 Call to Action: We need your support to bring visibility, dignity, and real opportunities to people living with mental-health challenges in Senegal. RESCAP’ART, a local art therapy association in Senegal, has launched a new project to publish a book and organize an exhibition that gives visibility and dignity to people living with mental-health challenges in Senegal. Together, we can contribute to healing, empowerment, and social reintegration of people living with mental health challenges in Senegal.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

In Senegal, people living with mental-health conditions often face stigma, isolation, and limited access to care. With only a handful of psychiatric services in the country, many individuals struggle to find support—and even when treatment is available, returning to community life can be challenging.

For over 25 years, the Atelier d’EX-pression Artistique at the psychiatric clinic of Hôpital Fann in Dakar has offered something rare: a safe, creative space where patients can express themselves freely through painting and drawing. Founded in 1999, the workshop has become a place of trust, emotional relief, and artistic discovery. Many patients continue to return long after they leave the hospital.

To expand this impact, RESCAP’ART, the association born of this work, is launching an innovative project for 2026:

1. A Book Documenting the Pioneering History of Art Therapy in Senegal

Created in partnership with the publishing house Saaraba, the book will:

• preserve the memory and importance of this groundbreaking therapeutic approach,

• showcase the extraordinary collection of patient artworks,

• highlight the artists behind them,

• and serve as a key advocacy tool for mental-health visibility across West Africa.

  
  

2. An Exhibition at the 2026 Dakar Biennale

Building on successful exhibitions financed by the Luxembourg embassy in Dakar during the 2022 and 2024 Biennale d'Art Contemporain Africain, RESCAP’ART will organize a new exhibition of artworks created by patients from the Atelier d’EX-pression Artistique. Presented within the OFF program of the Biennale, it will celebrate creativity, promote the importance of art in supporting mental health, offer visibility to artists through exhibiting their paintings, and generate income through the sale of paintings for patients and RESCAP'ART's activities.

Why This Matters

Art therapy opens doors to self-expression, healing, and reintegration. It reminds us that every person regardless of illness or stigma has a voice worth hearing and talents worth celebrating.

How You Can Help

We have just started raising funds to support the implementation of this project and are reaching out to interested supporters like yourself. Please contact me: catherine@onesingingheart.com if you want to find out more about investing in this innovative project!

“Soignez moi” “ Take care of me”. What does it take to heal as individuals and as societies? What step can you take today to care for yourself and others?