NEWS – Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival announces online programme

The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival announces a special programme of online activities, including live streamed events, film screenings and 5 new artist commisions.

The online programme will begin in May, when this year’s festival was due to take place, including during Mental Health Awareness Week (18th-24th May) and includes:

  • Eat. Move. Sleep. Repeat. An online project curated by artists Emma Jayne Park and Emily Furneax. Taking place over four weekly sessions, each session will focus on the work of an invited artist who explores either food, movement, sleep or ritual in their work. They will share an example of their work, lead a creative task and answer questions about their practice, leading to broader discussions with those in attendance.
  • An online version of Though This Be Madness by Skye Loneragan, which features a recovering mum who is attempting to tell you many tales of sisterhood struggles with mental health.
  • Five new artistic responses to the theme ‘My experience of isolation’, which can be showcased online. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, we want to amplify the creative voices of people who already understand isolation, in the interests of solidarity, empathy and the sharing of wisdom and experience.
  • Bijli Productions film version of One Mississippi, a theatre show about how childhood trauma shapes men’s adult lives, taking them to breaking point.

Further highlights from SMHAF’s online programme include:

  • Selected screenings from the SMHAF international film programme, including an announcement of the winners of our International Film Awards.
  • Filmed versions of theatre shows previously seen at SMHAF, including Super Awesome World by Amy Conway, Electrolyte by Wildcard Theatre, and Hysteria by Julia Taudevin, all showing online for a limited time.
  • SMHAF Socials, a regular online gathering for artists to share coping strategies, hosted by the festival’s associate artist Emma Jayne Park.
  • Showcases of work from across our regional programmes, including a digital exhibition.
  • An illustrated ebook and online showcase for our Writing Awards, in partnership with Bipolar Scotland.

Read more about this years online programme here.