This online panel event brings together experts from archive, theatre, library studies, psychology and psychotherapy to discuss Mary Barnes’s legacy and what it teaches us about the revolutionary potential of creativity.

The speakers will be Elena Carter, archivist, Wellcome Collection; Melanie Grant, Collections Development Librarian, Wellcome Collection; David Edgar, playwright, Mary Barnes (1979), and Ephraim Rosenstein, psychotherapist. The panel is convened and moderated by Victoria Tischler, Professor of Behavioural Science, University of Surrey, and curator of Rebirth & Revolution: The Life and Legacy of Mary Barnes.

The panel draw inspiration from the work in the exhibition, open from 6-21 October at The ARC at the University of Glasgow. Mary Barnes was resident at R. D. Laing’s therapeutic community, a radical experiment in anti-psychiatry, at Kingsley Hall from 1965-1970. Her artwork demonstrates the radical potential of creativity to support recovery from mental illness. Barnes lived in Scotland from 1985 until the end of her life.

Rebirth & Revolution: The Life and Legacy of Mary Barnes is presented in partnership with the Falkland Estate, the University of Glasgow, the University of Surrey, and the Wellcome Collection.