Access Arts is pleased to announce Donna Lawrence, accomplished visual artist is the winner of the 2023 Access Arts Achievement Award, for her groundbreaking  visual exploration of Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Light and Shade.   

Donna’s creative practice focuses on political, social, emotional and educationally motivated themes such as stigma, communication, mental health, isolation, inclusion and lived experience. With lived experience of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Bipolar Disorder, both highly stigmatised mental health condition, Donna will be using the Award funding to exhibit Light and Shade at the well-respected Belco Art Gallery, Canberra, in an exhibition that will coincide with Mental Health Week and BPD Awareness Week in 2024.   

Light and Shade is a groundbreaking exploration of DBT through a visual medium. DBT centres around a synthesis of opposites, and the exhibition’s themes of acceptance and change, two seemingly disparate forces, are explored through a visceral, emotional work.   

Donna aims to challenge the stigma around BPD through the explorative and interactive journey of visual and conceptual language in Light and Shade. Her audience will engage without judgement through self-reflection and expression, whilst discovering new perspectives about DBT and BPD.  

“I was really surprised to hear my application for the {2023} Access Arts Achievement Award was successful. As much as you think your work is relevant, disability in arts is often not regarded as ‘real art’ but something outside the mainstream. I’m working at changing that opinion in the community and in my own mind,” said Donna.