Excerpt:
...The atelier Kunst und Kultur (Art and Culture), in
the small Austrian town of Linz, was established in
1995 by artists, Johanna Gebetsroither and Pölzl Otto,
under the auspices of 'Pro Mente'. Rather than teaching
art, Kunst und Kultur offers materials and space for
untrained artists to work.
Edwin Schimpl was forced to move, with his
mother, into an old people's residence following years
of mental illness. He discovered there would be no space
for two decades of work, and was poised to destroy it.
Towers of boxes filled with cardboard sculptures and
layers of handmade portfolios bursting with paintings
were stacked up in an office near his home. The Kunst
und Kultur project rescued the art and gave Schimpl
the opportunity to continue working.