In May 1989, the Maltese Minister of Education and Culture, Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, inaugurated an art therapy exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology in the capital, Valletta. The exhibition, which lasted 3 weeks, consisted of more than 60 paintings and pottery items, executed over a period of 15 years in the occupational therapy department of the island's sole psychiatric hospital, Mount Carmel. The article looks at the background of the use of art in psychiatry, and its harnessing as a treatment medium in occupational therapy.
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