I was born on the NHS Blond hair blue eyes up yours Adolph Hi I am Michelle Baharier the project director of Cooltan arts As I say I was born on the NHS, into a Jewish family in Croydon. So I come from a family of refugees and am an ethnic minority in the UK. As with all statistics I became one of the disproportionate ethnic minorities to get a mental health diagnosis at THE AGE OF 14. Despite being severely depressed as my diagnosis described me I went to Watford College of art and design, then Exeter did a BA HONS 2:1 for smashing broken glass and climbing into skips full of the stuff. Then I got into the Slade were I did a PG: Dip and made blankets and sinks that talked to you. Anne Tallintier has described my work as ‘the most emotionally touching piece of art I’ve ever seen.’ I was on the first ever-European exchange set up by the European Union for art students. I was the first artist to put art on the telephone. I have lived in Frankfurt AM Main, Berlin, Jerusalem, and visit my family in Tel Aviv all the time. Being a Jewish woman who considers herself in exile and homeless, places hold a different meaning to me, it is all about escaping oppression. I guess that’s why they call me depressed. My personal life has had many ups and downs as well as life changing experiences, which is why I do what I do, basically ‘If you can’t do something good then don’t do it!!!!!’ For me that statement means helping each other and helping each other is a two-way thing. I use the activity of art to help me conquer my depression and if activity works for me why should it not work for others? So that’s why I am here, I teach two of the visual arts workshops a week, and then I do funding networking and everything that goes with running something from scratch. I also find time for my own work and am exhibiting at the IOP in March this year with Ari Henry a participant/ volunteer at Cooltan arts. I also run a short drawing course at Morley college called Dynamic drawing (if you have problems booking please call me 07952-481566, the next course starts on 22nd April 2007) My other work includes vaginas made out of bread and cast in resin as was my famous installation ‘SHOP TILL YOU DROP” held at Southwark women’s centre in 1996. I have been involved in running and opening art galleries such as the Submarine in PENTOVILLE RD IN 1985-7 where I first preformed my performance ‘She lived,’ an adaptation of the Seder story, instead of ‘let my people go,’ in which I revisit the evidence of women’s role historically in Judaic culture. My performance ‘I ’m elimination reiteration’ was performed in the review of Live art at the ICA in 1988 and turned into a book, but at that time I was experiencing server life difficulties, homelessness of 3 years did not help. In my work I have always used photography, drawing, sound, performance - in fact I think the definition of an artist being one thing or another is a myth as the really great artist Like Leonardo or Michael Anglo all used a medium that suited what they were making, and did not imprison themselves in a boxed discipline. My history of art will be written when I retire for the second time and can afford a PHD. It’s about the social context and political power of art. “WHO OWNS THE CULTURE OWNS THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE’ was this Adolph Hitler or Stalin? Does it matter? My hope is that Cooltan will become properly respected and therefore at least 50% funded by the people who gain the most from its existence, and they are the local authorities of the whole of London, the GLA, the health authority and many others who need a mental health organisation that can actually enable people back into the wider community, and Cooltan arts seems to me to be on that track.
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Bio 
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