The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF), led by the Mental Health Foundation, is marking its 20th year with a programme of more than 180 events across Scotland. 

The landmark line-up includes a new partnership with Summerhall in Edinburgh, six artist commissions, an International Film Awards programme in Glasgow, and more than 180 events nationwide.

Festival

For two decades, SMHAF has been combining high-quality creative programming with a community-led, grassroots up approach – often combining art and mental health activism – that has been widely imitated across the world as well as at home in Scotland. Since it began in 2007, the festival has been pioneering innovative new ways to support the creative achievements of people with experience of mental health problems, and exploring the relationship between creativity and the mind. 

Every year, SMHAF’s nationwide team of festival coordinators collectively decide on a theme that will shape the events that they programme. To mark the festival’s 20th year, Reflections will invite artists, communities and audiences across Scotland to pause, take stock and explore how our experiences, stories and creativity shape our mental health, individually and collectively. How do we slow down in a world so full of daily political, economic, environmental and technological upheaval that it can feel impossible to keep up? How can we understand our own needs when our lives are seldom calm and often charged with uncertainty? 

Programme highlights

Highlights of this year’s SMHAF programme include:  

• A new partnership with Summerhall in Edinburgh featuring a three week programme of performances and exhibitions, including the return to Scotland of Beth Wants the D  winner of the 2025 Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award), a double bill performance of recent Fringe First winner Parasocial Activity by Briony Martha and Almond by Milly Sweeney, The Rhinestone Cowboy (a play about schizophrenia by Leith-based poet Hjarta), and the launch of a new SMHAF commissioned EP by Jo Mango. The Summerhall programme also features the return of group exhibition Out of Sight Out of Mind and Reflect, Reclaim, Reimagine, an exhibition presenting five new SMHAF-commissioned artworks. 
• Kitchen Dancer, the premiere (at Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh) of a quirky new solo show by Fringe First winner Skye Loneragan, produced by Scissor Kick, in which Skye finds herself representing Scotland in the brand new ‘Coping Strategies’ category of the Olympic Games as a Registered Kitchen Dancer. 
• The return of SMHAF’s International Film Awards programme. featuring award-winning documentaries and features from across the world across three days at the Social Hub in Glasgow, including an awards ceremony hosted by writer-director Raisah Ahmed. 
• Guests will include Lexie Bean, co-director of award-winner What Will I Become?, which sees two filmmakers journey across the US to understand their own trans boyhood through the legacies of two young trans men who died by suicide, Toby-Alexander Smith, writer and star of Finding Calm about the pressures of new fatherhood, and Maria Marrone, director of award-winning short documentary Rendered in Light about a software engineer who creates therapeutic VR programme for children in Gaza. 
• The wider film programme in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee features preview screenings of acclaimed filmmaker Clio Barnard’s highly anticipated new film I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning; the UK premiere of Thorntree, Edinburgh-based filmmaker Isaac Knights- Washbourn’s insightful portrait of Rowan Alba’s pioneering supported accommodation for alcohol-dependent men; My Word Against Mine, a revelatory documentary by Dutch filmmaker Maasja Ooms, presented in partnership with Hearing Voices Network Dundee, with internationally renowned psychiatrist Dirk Corstens in attendance; and screenings of classic films Carrie (1976) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974).  
• The SMHAF Writing Awards at the Tolbooth in Stirling will be hosted by poet, broadcaster and mental health advocate Len Pennie and feature an opening set by emerging Scottish musician Joe Goodall. The evening will also feature live music and spoken word performances, bringing writers, artists and audiences together to celebrate creativity and the many ways writing can illuminate our experiences of mental health. 
• A young people’s programme supported by the Corra Foundation, featuring workshops and free/low priced performances tailored to 16-25 year-olds.  

Highlights from across Scotland

Reflecting the festival’s grassroots approach, community-focused organisations across Scotland will bring their own creativity to exploring this year’s festival theme through music, film, theatre, art and other events. Our regional programme includes 12 projects commissioned through SMHAF’s Regional Participatory Arts Fund, supported by the Baring Foundation and now in its second year. This year the fund has a particular focus on projects in Perth and Stirling, as well as rural areas across Scotland. 

The programme includes: 

• Perth’s most comprehensive SMHAF programme to date, exploring themes such as social media, recovery and resilience. Participating venues include Perth Art Gallery, where members of Trauma Healing Together will exhibit original work. There’s also a focus on turning every day spaces into pieces of art. Patients on the Moredun Ward at Murray Royal Hospital co-creating a permanent artwork for their visiting room to make the clinical space more welcoming. Elsewhere, local shops and everyday spaces will be transformed into a temporary art trail, encouraging reflection and community conversation.  
• Numerous events across Stirling, including an exhibition at Maggie’s Forth Valley showcasing work created through a series of wellbeing craft workshops. Stirling’s programme encourages audiences to try something new, build confidence and explore how creativity can support mental health. There’s a Silent Reading Disco, a men’s jewellery-making workshop and an evening of poetry, prose, song, presented by Write Angle.  
• A festival within the festival in North Ayrshire, with community events transforming everyday spaces into places of inspiration, expression and discovery; the North Ayrshire programme includes exhibitions, workshops, plus theatre, music and film. 
• An extensive programme in Lanarkshire, strengthening the links between arts, community and public organisations, led by Lanarkshire Recovery Network, a partnership with NHS Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire Council, South Lanarkshire Council, and the voluntary sector. Expect exhibitions, film screenings, writing events and live performances, all showcasing the talent of local artists and their unique perspectives on this year’s theme. 
• A wide-ranging programme of exhibitions and other events in Glasgow, such as Art in the Gart and Project Ability’s inspiring annual exhibition in the Gartnavel Royal Hospital, featuring artworks made by artists from Project Ability’s ReConnect studios, and artists who are inpatients at the Gartnavel Royal. Other exhibition highlights include Diary of a Schizophrenic, an exhibition of eight years of portraits by artist Jamie King and the Art of Family Life which presents audio-visual works developed by refugee communities who have settled in Glasgow and exploring themes of intangible cultural heritage, belonging and listening.  
• A Dumfries and Galloway programme led by OutPost Arts, shining a light on art created by Dumfries-based painter Martin Clarkson, Midpark Hospital staff and patients in partnership with NHS D&G, the Crichton Trust and Heritage Service – D&G Council, and by adults in custody in partnership with HMP Dumfries.  
• SMHAF Highland, a collaboration between local groups and third sector organisations coming together across the region and celebrating their 16th year of festival programming with nature walks, exhibitions, dramatherapy workshops and more. 
• Additional events in South Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Argyll and Bute, Inverclyde, Angus, Dundee and Falkirk. 

Quotes

Gail Aldam, Arts and Events Manager for the Mental Health Foundation, said: 

For 20 years, the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival has brought together artists, communities and audiences across Scotland to explore mental health through creativity, culture and conversation. As Scotland’s leading arts and mental health festival, SMHAF continues to provide a unique platform for challenging stigma, sharing experiences and creating meaningful opportunities for connection. This year’s programme reflects the creativity, diversity and ambition that have defined the festival over the past two decades, while demonstrating the important role arts and culture can play in supporting mental health and wellbeing.”

Marking our 20th anniversary, the theme Reflections invites people across Scotland to look back on personal and collective experiences, consider how they shape our mental health today, and imagine the future we want to create together. Whether taking part as artists, audience members or community participants, everyone has a place at SMHAF. Through film, visual arts, performance, literature and community events, the festival celebrates diverse voices, amplifies lived experience and highlights why investment in creativity, culture and community remains essential to building a mentally healthier Scotland.

The full programme for SMHAF 2026 is now online at www.mhfestival.com.

Partners

SMHAF 2026 is led by the Mental Health Foundation with support from Creative Scotland, the Baring Foundation, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, See Me Scotland, and media partner The List.

It is also supported by The Scottish Government’s Children, Young People, Families and Adult Learning (CYPFAL) Third Sector Fund administered by Corra Foundation; and Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI.