SMHAF Podcast Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival

Reflecting light and stillness, and the process of creativity and the essential part this can play in all of our wellbeing. Some Revolutions are ongoing, peaceful, and very quiet.

This track is by Talking Heads volunteer Paul Duncan, composed in response to the exhibition Photography Revolution by Dundee-based mental health charity Wellbeing Works.

Paul is a classically trained musician who is currently based in Perth and who composes music both as an outlet for his creativity and also for the therapeutic value that it brings into his wellbeing. Short examples of his compositions are on his Soundcloud page https://on.soundcloud.com/n1Nh5.

Listen to this podcast by Talking Heads volunteer Kirsty Ann-Watters, featuring an interview with koi collective members Sally MacAlister, Grace Baker, Zara Louise Kennedy, and Evie Mortimer about their new play Hysterical!.

Commissioned by Live Borders for the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, Hysterical! is a free fall through a categorically inaccurate history of mad women, based on real women in real times.

As part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, the University of Glasgow hosted Rebirth and Revolution: the Life and Legacy of Mary Barnes to mark the artist and mental health campaigner’s centenary year.

At the launch of the exhibition, a panel of experts gave a series of talks to contextualise her journey in art and recovery, from its beginnings at R.D. Laing’s controversial therapeutic community at Kingsley Hall, and how her legacy continues to have an influence in the present day.

Listen to this podcast by Talking Heads volunteer Sarah Visser, which uses audio clips from the event to explore the long and winding road that is the history of mental healthcare and how Mary’s story can inspire the use of creativity to promote recovery.

The past few years have seen a huge increase in the number of artistic projects, from theatre and film to comedy, that explicitly address mental health. Often these projects involve the artists sharing their own traumatic experiences.

In our second Mental Health Arts Network gathering, recorded in March 2022, we explore how we use the arts to explore mental health while safeguarding the mental health of artists and audiences.

Our speakers are:

Tamsin Griffiths and Paul Whittaker of Four in Four. Based in Cardiff, Tamsin and Paul are cross-disciplinary artists with a Mental Health diagnosis, who create participatory interactive projects that blur the boundaries of art-forms and challenge perceptions about mental health.

Juliette Burton (pictured) is a comedian who has talked openly about her mental health experiences in her shows. She is an ambassador for the mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness, and has worked closely with Mind, Beat and Time To Change.

Rebecca Day is a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and founder of Film in Mind, which advocates for better mental health in the film industry and provides bespoke therapeutic services for the filmmaking community.

Vikki Doig recently moved on from a job as learning and engagement manager for Youth Theatre Arts Scotland, where she mentored young people, programmed mental health workshops and worked to support a culture of care across the youth theatre sector. She is currently a member of the Mental Health Arts Network working group.

Hosted by Andrew Eaton-Lewis, arts programme officer for the Mental Health Foundation.

Art-Making As Self-Expression - Jan-Bert by Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival

Circus Skills - Isabel by Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival