Mental Health: Mind Matters

Mental illness touches all of our lives in some way.

In 2014, the National Institute of Mental Health reported that there were an estimated 43.6 million adults in the U.S. with a mental illness — 18.1% of all adults in the United States. Mental illness can happen to anyone, it is treatable, and it is important for us as a society to talk about it.

Mental Health: Mind Matters gives us the words we need to start conversations, the words we might avoid, and the wisdom to be advocates instead of judges. Star Tribune

Mental Health: Mind Matters uses hands-on immersive experiences and multimedia activities to provide a respectful, informative, engaging place where substantive learning, conversations, and social interactions can occur surrounding the topic of mental health.

Inside the Exhibition

In this tri-lingual English, Spanish, and French exhibition, you can explore how mental illness has been treated in the past, put yourselves in the shoes of people living with mental illness, and use full-body activities to learn about healthy recognition and expression of emotions.

• Engage with interactive components that examine the history of treatments, common misperceptions of mental illnesses and mental health, and how attitudes toward mental illnesses have varied over time.
• Explore empathy-building experiences that demonstrate what some people who live with mental illnesses may experience.
• Discover how artistic activities like painting, dancing, and writing can help us identify and express our emotions, and strengthen our mental health.

Select Interactives

• Hear what it’s like to live inside someone else’s head.
• Write down your worries and shred them in the Worry Shredder.
• Listen to people just like you share their personal experiences living with mental illness.
• Peer back in time to important moments in mental health history.

Resources

• Mental Health: Mind Matters family guide to the exhibition

Mental Health: Mind Matters was produced for North America by the Science Museum of Minnesota in collaboration with Heureka: The Finnish Science Centre.

Sponsored by The Albert and Ethel Herzstein Hall Fund.

The Bullock Museum, a division of the Texas State Preservation Board, is funded by Museum members, donors, and patrons, the Texas State History Museum Foundation, and the State of Texas.