Image: Schizy Inc Founder/CEO Heidi Everett, and Committee Vice Chair Michel Tuomy and Chair Sandy Jeffs.
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Welcome to Schizy Inc. Schizy Inc makes space in the arts for people with diverse and complex mental health. Artist personal development, lived/living experience community, vocational pathways and improving arts diversity and inclusion. Contemporary opportunities in visual arts, literature and the performing arts, with connected nature experiences. |
Image: Lots of people milling around indoors around a table with art. Man sitting at table shaking hands with man in black beanie.
Schizy Inc is one of the most established disability
Lived Experience led arts organisations in Australia.
Our innovative projects and events epitomise arts professionalism, access advocacy and creative empowerment. Schizy Inc is an optimistic arts community that also produces possibly the best public event in the entire world for World Schizophrenia Day (May 24).
Image: collage of stills from four films - hand drawing stick figures, three people seated on stage talking, person's face with cultural facial art, person singing passionately into a mic.
Schizy Inc is lived/living experience led, managed and informed. We're an incorporated, registered not-for-profit charity organisation regulated by Australian Charities and
Not for Profit Commission, with Deductible Tax Gift Recipient status. We align with United Nations social conventions on disability which states people aren't a problem to be fixed or cured, rather society needs to be welcoming, inclusive and accessible for diverse people.
Want background? Keep going (~3 minute read).
Otherwise, check out the SiDAS and Mojo pages!
'Schizy Inc aren't art therapy'
Doing art is therapeutic and healing.
Yet our power as a modern cultural group is owning our voices, and expressing our stories with full agency. We believe your reality is more than a medical problem to be fixed, cured or prevented.
Schizy Inc employs professional artists to run innovative workshops in visual art, writing, comedy, performing arts, filmmaking and arts business. We build real relationships with local arts organisations, communities and venues. Schizy Inc advocates for access and inclusion around complex mental health and neurodivergence in a way the mental health system cannot.
Schizy Inc build the kind of spaces that make you proud to have survived your past. You deserve respect for your existence.
Doing art is therapeutic and healing.
Yet our power as a modern cultural group is owning our voices, and expressing our stories with full agency. We believe your reality is more than a medical problem to be fixed, cured or prevented.
Schizy Inc employs professional artists to run innovative workshops in visual art, writing, comedy, performing arts, filmmaking and arts business. We build real relationships with local arts organisations, communities and venues. Schizy Inc advocates for access and inclusion around complex mental health and neurodivergence in a way the mental health system cannot.
Schizy Inc build the kind of spaces that make you proud to have survived your past. You deserve respect for your existence.
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Background of Schizy Inc.
Schizy Inc started in 2008 by Heidi Everett. Heidi spent many years in the psychiatric system and psycho-social rehabilitation groups. She experienced first-hand the need for gathering spaces that respected and empowered creative people, rather than just using the arts as a tool to help people socialise. The first Schizy Week event in 2010 was a 'Hot Dog Parade' in a Melbourne park during mental health week and featured companion dogs strutting handmade fashions down the runway. |
Heidi Everett: Smiling woman with light brown hair and grey top in front of tree.
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Image: Two laughing women on stage. Woman in red beanie on left holding a guitar and woman on right in flowery brown trousers talking into a microphone.
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Image: Many people on stage at Northcote Social Club venue. People in audience clapping. Video of Schizy Week Jam on screen.
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Why 'Schizy' Inc?
As well as being neurodivergent, Heidi was later diagnosed with schizoaffective. This led to a discovery around the lack of meaningful activities during Schizophrenia Week (May). Heidi was practicing as a musician so the two were put together and Schizy Week Jam was born at a small live music venue in North Melbourne in 2012 with the help from some muso mates, schizy friends and supporters.
The term 'schizy' came from a conversation Heidi was having with the late great autistic Donna Williams about the way medical language describing disabled people can create stigma in community. Australian slang often puts a 'y' on the end of words to denote mateship and the spirit of the under-dog of authority. Donna often used the term 'auty' so they both agreed that 'schizy' would be a similar way to dilute the sting of schizophrenia.
The Schizy Week event developed every year and grew to feature working bands and performers with living experience of diverse mental health. The 'One Love international Jam' became the most iconic part of the event. Musicians with lived experience from Melbourne, the US, Canada, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and New Zealand, jammed on the big screen with muso's on stage, with a cover of Bob Marley's song One Love.
As well as being neurodivergent, Heidi was later diagnosed with schizoaffective. This led to a discovery around the lack of meaningful activities during Schizophrenia Week (May). Heidi was practicing as a musician so the two were put together and Schizy Week Jam was born at a small live music venue in North Melbourne in 2012 with the help from some muso mates, schizy friends and supporters.
The term 'schizy' came from a conversation Heidi was having with the late great autistic Donna Williams about the way medical language describing disabled people can create stigma in community. Australian slang often puts a 'y' on the end of words to denote mateship and the spirit of the under-dog of authority. Donna often used the term 'auty' so they both agreed that 'schizy' would be a similar way to dilute the sting of schizophrenia.
The Schizy Week event developed every year and grew to feature working bands and performers with living experience of diverse mental health. The 'One Love international Jam' became the most iconic part of the event. Musicians with lived experience from Melbourne, the US, Canada, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and New Zealand, jammed on the big screen with muso's on stage, with a cover of Bob Marley's song One Love.
Since then, Schizy Inc has diversified an arts platform to include all story-arts, including illustration, film, stand up comedy, writing, nature-based creativity, visual arts, as well as personal and community empowerment development. We presented Mojo Film Festival, creating new opportunities for people to make and show short films. This is a response to the reality that people with schizophrenia are most often considered interesting content for non-disabled filmmakers than empowered with skills to make films.
In 2021 with support from Creative Victoria, Schizy Inc opened Australia's first mental health disability led and managed art studio, SiDAS. The studio is situated at arguably one of the best and most beautiful arts precincts in the country, Abbotsford Convent.
Schizy Inc's ultimate goal is working towards a Lived Experience led regional property where people can take time and space working with land, animals, nature and the local arts community. A commissioned 'Schizy Inc. Healing Farm' Feasibility Report will be released late 2023.
In 2021 with support from Creative Victoria, Schizy Inc opened Australia's first mental health disability led and managed art studio, SiDAS. The studio is situated at arguably one of the best and most beautiful arts precincts in the country, Abbotsford Convent.
Schizy Inc's ultimate goal is working towards a Lived Experience led regional property where people can take time and space working with land, animals, nature and the local arts community. A commissioned 'Schizy Inc. Healing Farm' Feasibility Report will be released late 2023.
Image: two smiling women standing in front of colourful artworks on black wall.
Schizy Inc is a registered tax deductible charity with the Australian Charities & Not For Profit Commission. We are managed by a committee of lived experience artist advocates, with support from governance mentors and arts sector allies. We are not a mental health support service but do encourage people to seek out medical support.
