Mental Health: Mind Matters Exhibit

Mental Health: Mind Matters is a touring exhibition that uses immersive experiences and multimedia activities to raise awareness about mental illness. This exhibition is included with Museum admission and will be at the Museum February 6 – August 29, 2021.

About the Exhibit
Mental Health: Mind Matters creates a safe space for important conversations about mental illness. Guests will explore how mental illness has been treated in the past. They’ll also have the opportunity to use innovative activities to put themselves in the shoes of people living with mental illness, and use full body activities to learn about healthy recognition and expression of emotions.

Mental illness can happen to anyone. Here in Virginia, the National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates that between 1.1 and 1.5 million adults have any mental illness and about 102,000 children and adolescents have a serious emotional disturbance.

Mental illness touches all of our lives in some way, and yet it is often misunderstood. Although it is treatable, not everyone seeks help or is aware that help is available. This is why being comfortable as a society talking about mental illness and mental health is an essential tool to raise awareness and develop empathy for people with mental illness.

Additional Programing
The Science Museum of Virginia is excited to bring this important exhibition to its community and to contribute to the vitally important national conversation about mental health. The Museum will be offering companion programming throughout the exhibition period. More details on this programming will be available soon.

This exhibition and related programming can help make it OK to talk about mental health. It is our hope that together, we can build a better understanding of some of the most common mental illnesses, as well as a sense of empathy for the experiences of people living with them.

Mental Health: Mind Matters was produced by the Science Museum of Minnesota with Heureka, The Finnish Science Centre and their partners, Ciencia Viva and Cite des Sciences & L’industrie. Special thanks to the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery for additional photos.