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Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival

The 20th Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) takes place from 19 October to 8 November, exploring the theme of Reflections.

SMHAF is an annual celebration of the arts and mental health across Scotland, led by the Mental Health Foundation. It aims to provide a platform for everyone to create and share art inspired by mental health.

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Share Your SMHAF Story: Reflections on 20 Years of Arts and Mental Health

In 2026, SMHAF celebrates 20 years of bringing people together through the arts and mental health with the theme of Reflections. Share your SMHAF story.

SMHAF Celebrates its 20th Year with Reflections Theme

In 2026, the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival celebrates its 20th Year with the theme of Reflections. From 19 October to 8 November, it’s an opportunity to recognise two decades of mental health and creativity while looking at where we are now and where we might go next.

Join Our Team: Marketing & Communications Consultant

The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) is looking for a freelance Marketing & Communications Consultant to join our team for this year’s festival, which takes place from 19 October to 8 November 2026.

Join Our Team: Young People’s Engagement Coordinator

The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) is looking for a freelance Young People’s Engagement Coordinator join our team for this year’s festival, which takes place from 19 October to 8 November 2026.

Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award Returns for 2026

The Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award will return in 2026 thanks to renewed support from the Cornwell Charitable Trust. The award was established in 2017 in recognition of the most compelling new show about mental health at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

SMHAF 2026 Writing Competition — Reflections

Enter the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival’s 2026 writing competition with new writing inspired by mental health and our theme of Reflections.

Writing Competition Entry Form

Enter the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival’s 2026 writing competition with new writing inspired by mental health and our theme of Reflections.

Opportunity Closed: SMHAF 2026 Regional Participatory Arts Fund

We are inviting applications for our small grants scheme to support participatory arts projects taking place in Perth, Stirling and towns and rural areas across Scotland as part of our SMHAF 2026 programme.

Opportunity Closed: Call for Artists to Respond to Theme of Reflections

We’re seeking proposals for five £1,000 artist commissions in response to our theme of Reflections, plus a new young artist commission. The application deadline is Friday 9 May 2025.

Out of Sight Out of Mind Announces Crowdfunding Campaign

For 13 years, Out of Sight Out of Mind has been a space where hundreds of people with experience of mental health issues can express themselves through art and be seen. CAPS Independent Advocacy is crowdfunding to make the 14th exhibition happen and secure its future.

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Comfort & Disturb

Explore commissioned artworks from the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2025 by Erin McGrath, Robyn Woolston and Rylan Gleave.

Our theme of Comfort & Disturb references the famous Cesar A Cruz quote about art as activism, the idea that “art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. It is a simple expression of the power of art both to challenge and to console, often having a transformative effect on people and societies.

Colourful textured print of a brain scan in yellow, pink and black.

Swell by Robyn Woolston

A film made by Robyn Woolston in the months following a brain tumour diagnosis, exploring how medical practice, entanglement and trauma intersect when confronting life-changing events.

Watch

SISTOR by Rylan Gleave

Award-winning composer Rylan Gleave was commissioned to produce a new audio work using the broken and detuned sounds of a 1960s Gemini transistor organ, which mirrors the artist’s own life experiences with disabilities, neurodivergence, and mental ill-health, through a trans and queer lens.

Listen

Erin McGrath

This comic by Erin McGrath explores her experience of new motherhood, post-natal depression and care giving, using notes and sketches she made in the year after giving birth.

Read

Featured Artwork

Comfort & Disturb

WRITING

The Ribs Opened Out
Illustration by Rosa Eisenberg

The SMHAF 2026 writing competition is now open for entries exploring the theme of Reflections. For inspiration, read our Comfort & Disturb (2025) anthology, featuring prose and poetry entries inspired by last year’s theme.

This collection highlights how writing can comfort us when we are going through different experiences and disturb our perceptions about mental health. Illustrated by Aberdeen-based Rosa Eisenberg, it includes fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction rooted in authentic experience and visceral imagination.

The winning piece, DSM-5 by Kirsty Crawford, is a reflection on a difficult postpartum period, after multiple miscarriages, a traumatic birth and postnatal insomnia, depression and anxiety. It reflects through nature a path to find the way back.

Read the Book

Enter the Competition