The group's mission is to assist persons with mental health issues in developing their craft and finding an outlet for their creative abilities through art in all forms. The Awakenings Project also works in another direction: to seek to raise public acceptance and awareness of the creative talents of people living with psychiatric disorders who work in the fields of fine art, music, literature and drama. As writers and artists in recovery, for over a decade, we at Awakenings have basked in this activity, and feel sure the public will continue to better surmise the creative capacity and endowment of persons living with mental health issues. The Awakenings Project has succeeded. Awakenings has been a grass-roots initiative. It shows that mental health consumers can become producers of extraordinary art exhibits, can publish an internationally acclaimed literary arts journal, can support music and theatrical events. Our work has not gone unnoticed. In 2006 we were winners of the "Outstanding Contribution to Recovery by a Non-Profit Organization" award by the Irwin Foundation at Celebration Recovery.

Alliances & Advocacy , Arts & Culture , Health , Mental Health , Visual Arts

art groups, classes, exhibits, producing The Awakenings Review, poetry readings/slams, music and dramatic productions.

people who like to create art, whether visual, music, literary or drama, who also live with some form of mental illness.

Chicago, Chicagoland, DuPage County, Kane County, Cook County, Will County, and sometimes all of Illinois