Recovered Futures Art Exhibition - a celebrated success!

The Recovered Futures Art Exhibition may be over, but the online store is available until this Sunday! We took some time out to reminisce on the incredible journey we've been on so far. Enjoy reading about this year's event below!

We are so proud to have celebrated a huge 30 year anniversary in 2021. The Art Exhibition remains steadfast in its commitment to celebrate the talents and stories of people with lived experience of mental illness; a mission which rings as true today as it did in 1991.

This year’s event, held in Brisbane City Hall and King George Square, attracted an impressive amount of traffic with more than 2500 visitors in attendance over the seven-day period, 9-15 October.

This year, 45% of all artworks were sold; a a significant increase from the previous exhibition. In other exciting news, 2021 marked the advent of our wonderful online gallery and shop – providing artists an additional opportunity to showcase and sell their art, and allowing guests a chance to digest artwork in a new and different way. 

We were delighted to have Mental Health Commissioner Ivan Frkovic and Councillor Vicki Howard in attendance for our opening event. Mr Frkovic gave a heartfelt speech urging us all to make mental wellbeing our highest priority, while Ms Howard opened the event on behalf of the Lord Mayor. 

This year we were proud to highlight five very different stories from our talented artists. The artist spotlights were shared on social media and our website, while snippets of artist bios and artwork descriptions were promoted in the event catalogue. At the opening event, one of our renowned artists, Febe Zylstra, graced the audience with the touching story of how art has given her hope in the face of much adversity, as she journeyed on her path through mental illness. It was a pleasure to see Febe speak, and her words echoed sentiments from many of our artists who agree that where words fail, art speaks.

Thank you for stopping by and celebrating the 30th anniversary of the iconic Art Exhibition with us!