Five arts organisations have been supported by the Scottish Arts Council to further develop their work within the field of arts and mental health recognising the positive role the arts can play in improving mental health and wellbeing.
The projects include a range of arts activity – including theatre, printmaking, and film and work with a range of groups including young offenders, people with long term mental ill health and older people suffering from dementia.
Each organisation has a strong track record and expertise in the arts and mental health field, and these five new projects demonstrate the diverse interventions the arts can make in improving our mental health and well being.
Commenting on the awards Jim Tough, Chief Executive, Scottish Arts Council said:
‘It is now widely recognised that the arts can have a positive impact on mental health and well being for all of us. The Scottish Arts Council is working with a range of practitioners and health professionals to develop our work in this field. These five projects will support this commitment through working with specific target groups to address mental health issues in a creative way.’
Public Health Minister Shona Robison said:
“Creative arts have an important role to play in helping people recover from mental illness and reaching out to people with dementia.
“This funding will aid the development of creative arts projects which help to support the mental health of people, young and old, across Scotland.”
The five successful projects are detailed below.
Visible Fictions (Polmont)
Visible Fictions will deliver a dynamic theatre project in Polmont Young Offenders Institution which will explore the effects of personal space and its impact on mental health and well being, working through an artistic process supporting the young men to deal with and change these effects.
Art Angel (Dundee)
Dundee-based Art Angel will be working with participants with experience of mental health difficulties through an artists’ collective project, building participants knowledge, skills and experience by providing a programme of high profile visiting artists, collaboration with Dundee Contemporary Arts Printmaking Studio and an arts residential. At the end of the year the group will work together to advertise, present and exhibit new work generated in a high quality art space in Dundee to celebrate and share the work of the project with the community, inviting the public to artist’s talks and tours of the exhibition.
Tricky Hat (Fife)
Tricky Hat productions have been supported to develop a new show for Out of the Dark Theatre Company, a drama and theatre based project for people aged over 50 with mental health problems living in West Fife.
This project will work with a writers’ group to explore mental health and looks at the issues that affect them on a daily basis. The group will work with professional playwright John Binnie who will act as a Dramaturg (drama advisor) and mentor for the writers and one of the plays will be developed and performed by professional actors.
Project Ability (Glasgow)
Project Ability will mark and document the organisation’s relocation to new studios in the newly refurbished Trongate 103. The project will provide a world class programme of artistic opportunities and support for artists with mental ill health who are based in their current Trongate studios during the first twelve months of relocation to Trongate 103. In addition a film maker will work at intervals throughout the project, interviewing the artists and documenting their progress and development.
Hearts & Minds (Stirling and Fife)
Hearts & Minds have been supported to bring their Elderflower programme to new healthcare units in Stirling and Fife. The Elderflower project works with people with dementia using performing arts to reach the person beyond their dementia. The Elderflowers draw from a wide artistic repertoire to engage with people they visit using clowning and physical slapstick, improvisation, music and rhythm, close-up magic, puppetry, games and storytelling.
A total fund of £100,000 has been awarded to these projects. The funding has come from the Scottish Government Mental Health Division and is managed by the Scottish Arts Council.
The projects develop work piloted by Artfull, a joint national initiative between the then Scottish Executive and the Scottish Arts Council, developed with the aim of articulating, developing and promoting the arts and the role they play in improving mental health and wellbeing.