3–26 May 2019 Mhfestival.Com INTRODUCTION
3–26 May 2019 mhfestival.com INTRODUCTION ● WELCOME The festival is led by the Mental Health Foundation in association with national partners: Welcome Each year the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival has a new theme. Unusually for an arts festival, this theme is not decided by a sole artistic One of this festival’s director or producer but by a vote. Before the programming process begins, our team of regional co-ordinators — dozens of activists, artists, and people core strengths has who work in various healthcare settings all over Scotland — meet in one place and discuss what we would most like to express, as a community, through always been the our programme. We brainstorm ideas and then we vote. connections it The theme we chose this year was Connected. On reflection, it’s strange that it’s taken us 13 festivals to pick it. One of this festival’s core strengths builds, between has always been the connections it builds, between communities all across Scotland, between people trying to find their creative voice and established communities all artists, between the different worlds of activism, the arts, and healthcare, and between international communities, through our connections with mental health festivals across Europe, and in Australia and the USA. This, we decided, across Scotland. was something we wanted to celebrate. This feels like a good year to be focusing on the ways in which we are all connected. Without wishing to make political statements, the prolonged Brexit process has created all kinds of divisions that won’t easily heal, and anxiety on a national scale.
[Show full text]