Join the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival at the Edinburgh Fringe for a special event reflecting on mental health and creativity.
A decade ago, British performance artist Bryony Kimmings and Australian stand-up comedian Felicity Ward both premiered groundbreakingly candid Edinburgh Fringe shows about their mental health. What did they learn from the experience, and what would they do differently now?
This Mental Health Arts Network event reunites two of the first high profile performers to make taboo-breaking shows about mental health at the world’s biggest arts festival, as they share their creative journeys with Andrew Eaton-Lewis from the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.
Please note that this is a learning and networking event designed for people who want to make any kind of creative work about mental health themselves, rather than a Q&A aimed at a general Fringe audience.
Photo by Matt Stronge
Photo by Christa Holka
Bryony and Felicity both recently contributed to Performing Anxiety, our resource for people who want to make audience-facing or participatory arts projects about mental health.
This year they are both back at the Fringe with new, mental health themed shows. Bryony’s Bog Witch describes how she uprooted her and her son’s lives to live in a tumbledown cottage in the wilderness, “to plug back into nature as a last-ditch attempt to be happy and sane”. Felicity’s I Wish I Could Come Out Of My Shell is a comedy show about “divorce, bisexuality, and Dancing with the Stars”.
If you’re making creative work about mental health, thinking about doing so, or are just interested in this subject, come along and join the discussion (or just listen if you prefer).
This is a limited capacity event so book early!
About the Mental Health Arts Network
The Mental Health Arts Network is a year-round initiative by the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival to bring together a community of artists interested in making creative work about mental health. If you would like to hear about future Mental Health Arts Network events, keep an eye on our website, join the festival’s mailing list, or follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
