FINDING HOME Life Outside Institutions

An old photographic image of the interior of a hospital

Please join the researchers for the launch event at Watt Space Gallery on Wednesday 8 July from 6pm

Led by women and reliant on voluntary work, charitable donations and some government funds, mental health aftercare associations differed from other forms of post-institutional care in their personal approach to mental health support. Their histories are only partially told or remembered. The thousands of women, men and families who were helped by aftercare have also been invisible in the historical narrative of mental health care in Australia.

This exhibition tells their stories by drawing from a rich set of archival material to evoke the spaces of care and the varied experiences of individuals who sought help. It shines new light on twentieth-century journeys between hospital and home for people leaving institutions. By turning to the past, we can reflect on how to approach mental health care in our present.

_{This research was fully supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme – DP240100640 Life Outside Institutions: histories of mental health aftercare 1900 to 1960.}

_{IMAGE: Interior Of Women’s Ward, Goodna 1913, Reproduced Courtesy of The State Library Of Queensland, Image No. Ape-045-0001-0029}

Event Information

• Date:  This exhibition opens Wednesday 8 July 2026 and runs until Saturday 12 September 2026
• Location: Watt Space Gallery, Cnr King St & Auckland St, Newcastle NSW 2300
• Campus: Newcastle (City)