The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) is seeking proposals for four small artist commissions on the theme ‘Revolution’.
The fee for each one is £750 and the application deadline is Friday 30 June 2023 at 6pm.
About the Festival
SMHAF is an annual programme to support the arts, explore how engagement in the arts can help prevent mental ill health and challenge preconceived ideas about mental health.
Led by the Mental Health Foundation with support from partner organisations across Scotland, SMHAF is the biggest festival of its kind in the world, and its ground-breaking model, combining high artistic quality with strong grassroots support, community engagement and social activism, has been imitated across Europe.
This year’s festival will take place from 4-22 October. Our 2023 festival theme, chosen in consultation with regional co-ordinators across Scotland, is ‘Revolution’.
The choice reflects both the Mental Health Foundation’s new strategic focus on tackling social inequality and, in the midst of turbulent political and economic times, a desire by many of our festival partners to be more direct in addressing the impact of economic barriers and social inequality on mental health.
We plan to do this through a series of interconnected events, including four small artist commissions.
Application Information
We are inviting artists of any discipline, based anywhere in Scotland, to propose a new piece of work in response to our festival theme that can be presented online from October 2023, as well as potentially being shared in some form at an opening SMHAF event in Glasgow in October.
The fee for each commission is £750 inclusive of materials.
The work can take any form – music, film, visual art, performance etc – as long as it responds in a creative way to the word ‘Revolution’ and addresses mental health. We are particularly looking for challenges to established ways of thinking.
To enter, please send us a short proposal. This should include:
- One or two paragraphs if in writing; we can also accept proposals by audio or video
- Examples of previous work
- An estimate of how long it would take you to make and submit your piece
- Please also complete our Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form
We will not prioritise applicants who are able to make work more quickly and we will be flexible around access needs. We hope to showcase the commissions during this year’s festival dates, 4-22 October, but we are also open to presenting work after these dates if the idea is compelling enough. The successful proposals will have something insightful to say about ‘Revolution’ and mental health.
You can find examples of previous SMHAF artist commissions here:
Please email applications to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject line ‘Revolution artist commission - Your Name' no later than Friday 30 June 2023 at 6pm.
Our ‘Revolution’ commissions are supported by Creative Scotland.
Image: Jo Chukualim (Shadow Work, SMHAF 'Gather' Commission)
