Our second online programme for the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival is now live!
In week two, we are delighted to present Amy Conway’s Super Awesome World, an autobiographical show about how the kinds of challenges set by computer games can help you navigate depression, I’ll Love You Till The End, an intimate film that sensitively examines the experience of bereavement by suicide, and new exhibitions and events from our regional networks.
This Week
Theatre
When computer games and mental health are mentioned together, the focus is often on the negative impact that gaming addiction can have on mental health. Amy Conway’s Super Awesome World offers a different perspective – it’s a show about how the kinds of challenges set by computer games can help you navigate depression.
Amy Conway says: “I wanted Super Awesome World to be a fun show about depression and I also wanted people to hear these thoughts of not being good enough and of feeling like a failure reflected back at them in a world of videogames where falling flat on your face and having to start again is not only a given, but celebrated as part of the enjoyment of the game narrative.”
Film
Our film for this week is I’ll Love You Till The End an intimate film that sensitively examines the experience of bereavement by suicide. Through recounting her own experience of her father’s suicide, and capturing revealing interviews with mothers, sisters and brothers, director Bex Singleton opens a window into what happens for those left behind when someone takes their own life.
The film will be available to watch throughout the week right here. Bex Singleton will join us for a live online Q&A on Thursday evening at 8.30pm. You can book your place for that here. The film includes Subtitles for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing audiences, thanks to Matchbox Cinesub and Film Hub Scotland.
Community Programme
SMHAF in Renfrewshire are the latest contributors to our SMHAF at Home exhibition. Their annual open exhibition Mindscape celebrates the benefits of creativity to our recovery and wellbeing. Inspired by the theme of Perspectives, artists were invited to think about their life from the perspective of music. They have recreated their favourite album covers, desert island discs style. You can check them out here.
Julia James-Griffiths’ Mind to Move workshops also continue on Tuesdays at 12pm and the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) are running Saturday Art Clubs for the next two weeks themed around SMHAF, mental health and wellbeing.
Next Week
Mental Health Awareness Week takes place next week from 18-24 May. The theme is Kindness and look out for announcements about the work we are doing to celebrate this theme.
Next week also sees the launch of Eat. Move. Sleep. Repeat., a series of online events that explore how different creative approaches can nourish our basic needs, curated by Emma Jayne Park and Emily Furneaux. We are delighted to announce that New York-based artist Emilie Baltz will be the first to share her practice, leading a conversation and workshop on the theme of Eat on Wednesday 20 May.
On Friday 22 May, we will also be hosting Filmmakers In Isolation: How to Support Yourself and Others. Documentary maker and person centred therapist Rebecca Day and SMHAF award winner Tim Mercier will join us as we discuss the unique challenges the pandemic presents to creative practice and mental health, whether working alone or with collaborators.
We hope you can join us for many of these events. Please help us spread the word by sharing our events with friends and family and let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival is led by the Mental Health Foundation.