We are united by the belief at Gallery Gachet that art is a means of survival, sometimes it's the only way. But to find out, we first must survive.

We've come together, and built a great show and of course, there's a lot more to it – and to Gachet– than hanging artwork on walls. The point is to exist, defiantly, and be a space where folks with mental illnesses and all kinds of outsidernesses and othernesses can find and create a base and a community. It's about the possibilities and the union of art, politics and community to make change. It's about holding this space in this neighbourhood. And the point of this art is the idea that this – this fucked up world – doesn't have to be this way, that there is nothing inevitable or natural about history, that choices have been made by people in power, past and present, that have oppressed us collectively and individually and look a lot like suicidal tendencies globally.

So call us crazy. All of us, all the time.

And that's the point of Gachet, the point to real art: that there are still ways to live, to connect with others, to deal with this situation, to control and order our own lives. Freedom is what it is, and it's complicated and hard, but it's totally worth it.

So this is our Mad Pride. Mad Pride is an international movement created by psychiatric survivors, consumers, folks labeled “mentally ill” — all of us that proudly reclaim the words mad & crazy, and those in solidarity with us. We are mad. We are crazy. And we are damn proud to be. We believe madness is a completely sane and well­ adjusted response to living in such a mad world, in such a mad city, in these terribly mad times.