OUR STORY

Okay but seriously...Room for Light (RFL) is a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating the nuanced and vibrant stories of people in relationship with their mental health. Through immersive, multi-media art installations RFL inspires empathy, deepens connection, and subverts biases.

The Mission.

The Short Version.

Since 2005, Room for Light (formally Erasing the Distance) has been collecting and sharing stories about mental health in an effort to disarm stigma. What started with a few people sharing their own stories in the back of a coffee shop, grew into an organization that collected more than 400 stories and traveled across the country impacting more than 85,000 people.

In 2020, the organization, along with the world, saw a major shift. Our collective experience during the pandemic brought mental health to the forefront and fundamentally shifted the way the topic was being spoken about and treated. Overnight it became socially acceptable to discuss feelings like depression and anxiety.

But stigma is a shapeshifter and it started to show up in a new way.

The stories we were collecting and sharing were so bright. People would sit down with us to share their stories and the room would come alive with laughter, and tears, excitement and creativity. But when we talked about the organization, the first impression was often one of heaviness and solemnity.

Managing mental health is complicated, but it isn’t the the full story. We asked ourselves: how can we think about these stories in a new way? How could we create something that really celebrated the whole person? How could we make more Room for Light?

So we set out on a quest. We invited people to apply to be a part of the project. Set up a professional photoshoot, invited them to wear what made them feel most like themselves, to play music that makes them feel alive, to bring tokens of pride. And to tell us stories that stand out. That make them proud. We asked them to talk about the vibrant parts of their lives born out of managing their mental health.

In collaboration with photographer Ian McLaren, the mission was to capture those big beautiful joy filled moments and to tell their stories through the lens of celebration.

In May of 2023 the original 10 Room for Light stories were featured at a public event on the 30th floor of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield building in downtown Chicago overlooking Millennium Park.

And now, a year and half later we have 17 lightboxes and baby, we’re just getting started…

The Team.