The 2024 Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award launches today, and Edinburgh Fringe performers whose shows address mental health are invited to nominate their work for consideration by the Foundation’s panel of judges.
For a second year, the award is sponsored by the Cornwell Charitable Trust, in memory of the arts journalist Tim Cornwell. The winner will be announced as part of the long-running Scotsman Fringe Awards ceremony at the Pleasance Courtyard on Friday 23 August.
The Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award was established in 2017 in recognition of the most compelling new show about mental health at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Its previous winners are: Mental by Kane Power (2017), Electrolyte by Wildcard (2018), All of Me by Caroline Horton (2019), Manic Street Creature by Maimuna Memon (2022) and Choo Choo! by StammerMouth (2023).
The award is presented by the Mental Health Foundation in partnership with the Scotsman newspaper, for whom Tim Cornwell worked for many years as its arts correspondent. More recently Tim was part of the judging panel for the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award, a subject close to his heart as someone living with Bipolar disorder. Tragically Tim died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism in June 2022; he had just finished editing A Private Spy, a collection of letters by his father, the author John Le Carre, a task for which he would receive much acclaim in the months after his death.
Tim was a terrific and often underrated writer, on almost any subject you could think of; he was also very open about his mental health struggles. He was a valued member of the judging panel for the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award, a task to which he brought both his personal insights and his many years of experience as an arts journalist. We are very grateful to the Cornwell Charitable Trust for offering to support this award; it feels like a fitting tribute, celebrating both Tim’s long relationship with the Edinburgh Fringe and his achievements in reducing the stigma around mental health.
Andrew Eaton-Lewis, arts programme officer, Mental Health Foundation.
Mental health has become an increasingly prominent theme at the Edinburgh Fringe over the past few years, with more and more artists making brave, honest and boundary-pushing work on the subject. The Mental Health Foundation set up its annual award in order to recognise, support and encourage new creative work that challenges stigma, asks difficult questions, and opens up conversations.
The winner of the award will be presented with a £3k cash prize plus a flexible package of additional support tailored to the future development of the show, which may include mentoring support, mental health training, travel costs, or support with additional costs such as wellbeing practitioners.
If you would like to be considered for the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award please contact Andrew Eaton-Lewis on aeaton-lewis@mentalhealth.org.uk.
