Sep. 27—Current exhibits in Gustavus Adolphus College's two gallery spaces tie in with the theme of Wednesday and Thursday's Nobel Conference 58: Mental Health (In)Equity and Young People."

The Schaefer Gallery"Are you okay? I'm not, and that's okay" showcases works by Gustavus students enrolled in the Critical Issues in Art" course taught by Colleen Stockmann at the St. Peter college.

Course participants not only examined the art community's role in addressing social issues; they worked together to create the especially hands-on public experience.

"Last spring, the students developed ideas for the show; this fall's students helped with the installation," said Nicolas Darcourt, studio and visual arts programs manager in art and art history.

The exhibit invites participants to immerse themselves in installations designed to engage their senses within topics of creative expression and self-reflection. Darcourt, as curator of the Schaefer show, chose from the students' many ideas, seven to install in the multi-level gallery. Each floor offers a separate experience, he said.

"The first floor deals with visitors being able to draw and doodle on the windows and walls; the second floor involves visitors in listening to sounds — natural sounds, positive affirmations; the third floor lets them interact with color — it's tactile and visual."

"At the exhibit's last station, visitors write down an affirmation and they get to take an affirmation," Darcourt said.

"There's something to be said for focusing on our campus and having this be a way to help students connect directly with the Nobel Conference through this tangible set of experiences. Getting connected to these bigger-picture conversations about mental health was one of the goals of this show," Stockmann said in a Gustavus press release.

An interactive art show may serve as a way to 'detox' from busy life, Junior Eli Simon suggested in the release. "It's about mental health and trying to re-center yourself and pull away from what's going on in the world for a few minutes."

Hillstrom Museum of ArtOne wall in the Hillstrom Museum of Art has been dedicated to a single work from the museum's permanent collection, along with an essay about the difficult life and hard times experienced by the artist who sketched the New York City landscape.

"FOCUS IN/ON: George Ault's Lower Broadway and His Traumatic Career" is the combined effort of two Gustavus professors. Donald Myers, teaches art history and serves as the museum's director. Marie Walker, chair of the Department of Psychological Science, also is co-chair of this year's Nobel conference.

"This is a perfect collaboration," Myers said. "It brought us together so we could create something that's very interesting."

"When Don first asked me to be part of the program, he invited me to view the artwork," said Walker, who has studied extensively the mental health of artists and writers.

Her published works include a piece she co-authored for the Journal of Creative Behavior: "Personality Correlates of Depression in the Autobiographies of Creative Achievers."

Myers finds Ault's paintings to be beautiful and skillfully executed. An absence of human figures in most of his works conveys deep solitude. That could be a reflection of Ault's tenuous mental health, Myers guessed.

The Hillstrom's pencil drawing of New York's Lower Broadway was drawn in 1921, a year after Ault's mother died in a New Jersey mental hospital. A few years earlier, he and his first wife divorced. Ault also experienced the loss of his favorite brother, and that man's wife, who'd followed through on a suicide pact.

Ault's second marriage and some recognition of his talent were bright points in his life. However, his family's fortune was dissolved by the 1929 stock market crash. Ault's two remaining brothers were devastated by their financial losses. They both died by suicide within a year of each other.

Ault's neurotic personality eventually ended his success as an artist. Despite his difficulties, he continued to create masterful works until his death in December 1948.

The coroner's ruling of suicide was disputed by Ault's wife. Myers and Walker do not offer a definite conclusion on her reaction to her husband's death; but they do wonder why.

"She loved him so much, she was his defender throughout life. Ault did have a history of alcohol use and he did like to walk around after dark," said Myers, citing archival information he researched for the essay.

"Maybe she didn't want his life to be a model to others who might think they have to struggle to be artists," Walker said.

A myth exists assuming all people who are creative also are unstable. The state of mind for two geniuses, Vincent Van Gogh's psychotic episodes and Jackson Pollock's depression, were highlighted in movies about their lives.

Walker's studies over the years have found artists tend to be more likely to have mental health issues than people with minds that are more analytical. Although contentment is not necessary to be a creative, there's evidence of not all highly talented people suffer with mental illness.

"There's Felix Mendelsohn, for example, and Paul Granlund ... he was a happy man," said Myers, referring to a 19th-century German composer and a sculptor who created many pieces displayed on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College.