Join us for an uplifting day of community, creativity, and celebration as Moving Minds returns to Civic House as part of Glasgow 850!
Moving Minds is a joyful and family-friendly day of creativity, connection and community. Join us to celebrate this year’s festival theme of Comfort & Disturb through performances, workshops and participatory activities, as we celebrate diversity, wellbeing and local community talent.
Workshop
Drop in throughout the day for creative workshops including comic book creation with Etienne Kubwabo, creator of Scotland’s first Black superhero in Beats of War. Learn to create your own superhero, discover their superpowers and bring your characters to life through illustration.
Exhibition
View creative responses to Comfort & Disturb created by the Joon Project – interactive collage artworks exploring the radical potential of art to guide us through ongoing crises, using hope and imagination during times of grief, rage and uncertainty.
Performances
Experience an afternoon of diverse performances including:
- Village Storytelling Centre: Traditional tales exploring the power and tenderness of ancient storytelling, using only voice and movement to comfort and move audiences.
- Paragon Music: Inclusive musical performances from young people and adults who come together through Paragon’s equality and inclusion programmes, showcasing the transformative power of music.
- Common Wheel: Original songs created by community music groups managing or recovering from mental illness, performed by participants from their mental health music workshops.
- Maryhill Integration Network’s Joyous Choir: A rich choir of women from refugee, asylum-seeking and local Glasgow communities, sharing songs of friendship, protest, sisterhood, dreams, freedom and hope
Plus: Interactive displays from the SMHAF Volunteer Collective, a sensory corner for quiet reflection, play, face painting, food from Parveen’s Kitchen and conversation space.
This is a Pay What You Can event, with FREE tickets available to ensure it is accessible to all. All ages are welcome, with activities designed for families and individuals alike.
Full Line-Up
Create Your Own Superhero with Etienne Kubwabo
Join comic creator and writer Etienne Kubwabo for a workshop and learn how to create your superhero.
Etienne will start off the workshop with an illustrated talk about the inspiration for his own comic book and his focus will on how he uses the world around him to be inspired. He will then guide the participants to create their own superheroes, discover their superpowers, setting of their story and Etienne will help them draw their characters.
Etienne Kubwabo is a filmmaker and comic book creator with a passion for showcasing his stories and culture through his art. He founded Etianverse Comics (formally KƎ Comics) and released his debut comic Beats of War, which has now sold over 50,000 copies worldwide. The story follows Scotland’s first-ever black superhero who crash lands in Glasgow. He has discussed its inception on BBC’s The Social, BBC Radio Scotland and STV News.
Follow Etienne on Instagram at @dir.etiennek or Facebook.
Village Storytelling
Join a storyteller from Village Storytelling Centre to listen to a selection of traditional tales that explore the power and tenderness of an ancient artform. Be prepared to be comforted by the sounds and rhythms of only voice and movement, then be moved by stories that speak to our most human qualities.
The Village Storytelling Centre (VSC) is an award-winning arts charity, built on the belief that stories change lives. Our vision is a world where people and communities are inspired, connected and heard, underpinned by our mission to improve and enrich lives across Scotland through the power of story.
Follow The Village Storytelling Centre on Instagram at @VillageStories or Facebook.
Comfort & Disturb: The Joon Project
The artworks in this exhibition are creative responses to the SMHAF 2025 theme, Comfort & Disturb, contributed by members of the community. We invited participants to reflect on the role of hope and imagination during this time period of profound grief, rage, and uncertainty – and to explore the radical potential of art to guide us through ongoing and overlapping crises.
The Joon Project is a community initiative with the aims of supporting consciousness-raising processes centred around our collective liberation. Some of the current projects include free creative and wellbeing workshops, a monthly radical reading group and a practitioner peer support network called Therapists for Liberation.
You can find out more on Instagram @thejoonproject_gla or on our website loapourmirza.com/thejoonproject .
MIN Joyous Choir
Since 2013, MIN’s Joyous Choir has used singing to support social inclusion, and improve wellbeing, in a welcoming and creative space. The choir welcomes participants from diverse backgrounds including women who are seeking asylum and refuge in Glasgow, as well as those born and raised in the city. The group shares songs from different cultures, and often sing about themes such as friendship, protest, sisterhood, dreams, freedom and hope.
Maryhill Integration Network (MIN) is a grassroots community organisation based in Glasgow, established to people seeking asylum, refugees, migrants and the settled inhabitants of the city together. Since 2001, MIN has been developing projects which support positive social change by providing a welcoming space with opportunities for collaboration and connection.
Find out more at www.maryhillintegration.org.uk.
Common Wheel
Common Wheel’s community music groups will perform original songs created during a recent series of music workshops.
Common Wheel is a mental health charity that supports people managing or recovering from mental illness and dementia by providing meaningful activities. Our aims are to improve mental wellbeing, increase skills, reduce isolation, and challenge stigma. We work with small groups and run a variety of activities including music workshops, visual arts, drop-in activities, climbing and bike building. Our bike workshops are also open to the public for bike repairs and sales.
To find out more about us and our activities please visit www.commonwheel.org.uk, follow us on Facebook or Instagram at @commonwheelglasgow.
Supported by:
