The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) is an internationally respected annual programme to support the arts, explore how engagement in the arts can help prevent mental ill-health and challenge preconceived ideas about mental health.
The aims of the festival are to:
- Explore how the arts can contribute to preventing mental health issues.
- Challenge perceptions of mental ill health.
- Make connections across communities.
- Develop audiences for the arts in Scotland and beyond.
- Encourage participation in the arts to promote good mental health.
- Provide a platform for people to create and share work about mental health.
The Mental Health Foundation is a key partner in the Northern Irish Mental Health Arts Festival (NIMHAF), and our pioneering work inspires new programmes elsewhere.
In addition to the annual festival, the arts programme takes place throughout the year. Current projects include a new Mental Health Arts Network, supported by the Baring Foundation, Reclaiming Our Heritage oral history project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the annual Out of Sight, Out of Mind exhibition, led by CAPS Independent Advocacy.
Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2024
This year’s festival will take place across Scotland from 10 – 27 October 2024, exploring the theme of ‘In/Visible’.
With this theme we consider what it means to be ‘visible’ or ‘invisible’ when we think about our mental health. Which aspects of our mental health do we keep hidden and which do we feel able to share? How can we use the arts and creativity to make mental health more ‘visible’, in a way that engages people and challenges stigma?
SMHAF will receive support from Creative Scotland for 2024 and 2025, giving us welcome stability and creating new opportunities to develop our work with artists and communities across Scotland.
Explore the SMHAF website
Find out more about SMHAF and the events that are running during the 2024 programme.
Find out more
Performing Anxiety: A mental health arts resource
Performing Anxiety is a resource for people who want to make audience-facing or participatory arts projects about mental health.
It draws on interviews with over 30 people – writers, performers, directors, producers and programmers – across the UK, many of whom have done pioneering work in this field in recent years.
The resource includes a user-friendly good practice guide, and covers autobiographical work, participatory work, safer working environments, leadership, and more. It's also available as a 5-episode podcast.
Performing Anxiety was created by the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival and the Mental Health Foundation, with funding from the Baring Foundation.
Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2023
Last year's festival explored the theme of ‘revolution’.
In the midst of political and economic turbulence, the festival confronted the impact of economic barriers and social inequality on our mental health, and asked ‘how we can do things differently?’.
The theme was brought vividly to life through a diverse, multi-arts programme spanning music, film, theatre, art, discussion, creative workshops and more – with many events programmed by community groups and community-focused organisations, reflecting the festival’s ‘grassroots up’ approach.
SMHAF 2023 was led by the Mental Health Foundation and supported by national partners: Creative Scotland, Thrive Edinburgh, Edinburgh Health & Social Care Partnership, See Me Scotland, The Baring Foundation, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, Media partner The List, and Scottish Recovery Network.
