Tessa's mosaics gave 100 patients a break from depression

For 15 years, the Hackney Mosaic Project has been turning broken tile into public art across East London, and turning the slow work of sorting and pressing shards into something like therapy for the people who do it. Founder Tessa Hunkin, a 72-year-old architect turned artist, started the project after a chance encounter with a mental health recovery group in Westminster convinced her the repetitive concentration of mosaic-making could help people living with depression, PTSD, and addiction. Her volunteers have since installed Roman-style murals in Shepherdess Walk, 50 dog portraits in Hackney Downs Park, and floral benches at the River Place Health Centre, where more than 100 patients joined the work. "It gives people a holiday from their head," Hunkin told Spitalfields Life. "It is a simple task that requires concentration and produces something at the end, so it is never time wasted because you can see where your time has gone."