Manifesto – the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival’s opening event – is an ambitious, day-long happening that will explore the questions: What does a mental health revolution look like? And how do we start one?
We’ve invited prominent artists and activists to deliver a series of creative provocations. The diverse line-up includes songwriting collective Hen Hoose, socio-political artist Heather Marshall, poet Imogen Stirling and musician Sonia Killmann, writer and performer Skye Loneragan, and art and science collective Traumascapes.
The theme of this year’s festival – taking place across Scotland from 4 – 22 October 2023 – is ‘revolution’. In the midst of political and economic turbulence, the festival seeks to confront the impact of economic barriers and social inequality on our mental health, and ask ‘how we can do things differently?’.
Join us at Manifesto and together we will create a collective statement and manifesto for social change. Don’t miss this inspiring and thought-provoking day of performances, live music, discussions, film screenings, participatory workshops and more.
Some activities are free and drop-in and don’t need to be booked in advance. This includes artist Heather Marshall‘s interactive session She’s on the Roof for which she’ll invite audience members to develop a communal installation: a visual Manifesto of Care.
How to book
Day Passes for Manifesto are available using ‘pay what you can’ pricing at £5 / £10 / £15 and enable you to book for five events during the day. Each person attending must book their own Day Pass.
Tickets for individual events are now available and cost £3 each. You can book Manifesto’s individual events via the below links.
Please book your ticket for Manifesto’s evening event Hen Hoose: Power Up (Wed 4 Oct, 7.30-9.30pm) separately. It costs £5 / £10 / £15, on a ‘pay what you can’ basis.
To ensure that everyone can access Manifesto, free tickets and passes are also available upon request at smhaf@mentalhealth.org.uk. Please also email us if you would like to make a group booking on behalf of an organisation.
Main image: Heather Marshall (c. Chris Scott)
Line-Up
Please book for individual events via the below links.
Stigma Watch with See Me
Friday 25 Oct, 11am–12.30pm
How does stigma operate in society? Where does it enter our lives and what does it tell us about the systems we live in? Join See Me for an interactive, creative workshop exploring these ideas over a light breakfast.
Free but ticketed
Hidden Visions
Friday 25 Oct, 1-1.30pm
In this performative lecture, photographic artist Mark Gould explores the ways in which art is engaged by, and engages with, unseen narratives of power, disability, neglect and shame, while also going on the occasional weird tangent!
Free but ticketed
Hallucinogen by Jen McGregor
Friday 25 Oct, 3-4.30pm
Hallucinogen is a work in progress sharing by schizospectrum playwright Jen McGregor, in which a newly bereaved young woman is left alone in her deceased parents’ house contemplating whether to survive the night.
Pay What You Can:
£7 / £5 / £3 / FREE
Performing Anxiety discussion – the Making of Tero Buru
Friday 25 Oct, 5-6pm
Tero Buru is a new play by the late musician and writer Beldina Odenyo, posthumously interpreted by Beldina’s sister, Leah McAleer. Here, members of the production team discuss the importance of safeguarding the mental health of everyone involved.
Free but ticketed
Broken Silences by Simone Seales
Friday 25 Oct, 7-8.30pm
Broken Silences is an intimate, in the round performance by musician Simone Seales, a collective healing experience for those who have felt invisible, with a curation of poems by writers who have found solidarity in community even though wider society pushes them to the fringes.
Pay What You Can:
£7 / £5 / £3 / FREE
In the Hartwood
Saturday 26 Oct, 12-1pm
In the Hartwood is a modern-day faerie tale about a pauper’s cemetery in Hartwood Hospital, a decommissioned psychiatric hospital near Shotts, told by storyteller Jane Mather and harpist Heather Yule.
Pay What You Can
£7 / £5 / £3 / FREE
In the Hartwood workshop
Saturday 26 Oct, 1-2pm
Following her performance of In the Hartwood, a modern-day faerie tale about a pauper’s cemetery in a decommissioned psychiatric hospital, storyteller Jane Mather will host a discussion and creative workshop in which audience members can reflect on the themes explored in the performance.
Pay What You Can
£7 / £5 / £3 / FREE
SMHAF Film Showcase
Saturday 26 Oct, 1-4.30pm
A unique opportunity to see an eclectic programme of artists’ shorts exploring mental health from diverse viewpoints. Commissioned by the festival over the past few years, these thought-provoking films were made in response to our festival themes of Normality? (2021), Gather (2022) and Revolution (2023).
Free and drop in:
screening on a loop
Floating Along Silently by Sanjay Lago
Saturday 26 Oct, 2.30-3.30pm
In this solo performance, Sanjay Lago brings together poetry, comedy storytelling, and Bollywood dance to raise the visibility of queer South Asian mental health and to share the experience of a community rarely portrayed in theatre.
Pay What You Can
£7 / £5 / £3 / FREE
Out of Place, Out of Mind by Counterpoint Arts
Saturday 26 Oct, 5-6.30pm
An evening of performances and discussion that shines a light on the invisibilised experience of being displaced, including 7th Solicitor, a performance by HUSS that exposes the hostility inflicted by the government’s environment policy on people seeking refuge in the UK, and Dissent, a dance performance by Fadi Giha about a soul dancing on the brink of madness.
Pay What You Can
£7 / £5 / £3 / FREE
Dancing Madness
Saturday 26 Oct, 7.30-9pm
In this insightful feature doc from directors Marta Espar and Maiol Virgili, three contemporary dancers collaborate with three women diagnosed with mental disorders to explore the boundaries between normality and madness through a shared creative process in the Basque Country.
Pay What You Can
£7 / £5 / £3 / FREE
Flutter by Deborah Shaw
Friday 25 & Saturday 26 Oct, 12-8pm
An electronic-infused choral suite by Deborah Shaw (aka Aurora Engine), inspired by her experience with Tourette’s syndrome. This SMHAF 2024 artist commission will be available to listen to via headphones.
Free and drop in
Ritu Arya: Peek-A-Boo
Friday 25 & Saturday 26 Oct, 12-8pm
A sculptural installation comprising multifaceted organic-shaped sculptures, creating a space for viewers to reflect on how acknowledgment and acceptance are perhaps the primary steps in tackling mental health issues as a society. A SMHAF 2024 artist commission.
Free and drop in
