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Studio Upstairs is a unique therapeutic art community for people whose interests, abilities and talents can be expressed through the arts, yet are for various reasons unable, or actively choose not to participate in the already existing institutions – with particular focus on those who have suffered from mental health difficulties.
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Studio Upstairs is a place where people have the liberty to think, speak and act aesthetically, emotionally, socially or remain silent if they wish. It is a place
where madness is seen as ordinary through the extraordinariness of art.
Claire Manson and Douglas Gill
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Studio Upstairs is a working art studio, dedicated to the exploration of personal experience through the creation of art. It is a place where its membership has the opportunity to come and experiment and share ideas in the company of others, free from the constraints of contemporary art fashions, therapeutic interpretations and psychiatric diagnosis.
Studio Upstairs is not a treatment centre providing art as an introspective pastime. The therapeutic interests here are concerned with the artist in order that they can produce art. Studio Upstairs has a genuine interest in fine art where the work goes out into the public gallery for debate and sale.
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Genius is the most fluid currency that exists, genius abounds and any newcomer has sufficient reserve to produce an admirable work of art.
John Debuffet, artist/founder of Art Brut.
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