Welcome to our North Ayrshire Mental Health Arts Festival site!
Our festival runs each year in October but our team work all year planning and designing creative projects and encouraging community involvement and participation.
In North Ayrshire we believe the promotion of creative arts is essential in supporting mental health and wellbeing and provides us with opportunities to engage with people within our communities that may not have done so using traditional methods.
Incorporating the creative arts into our every day practice provides the opportunity for individuals to explore mental health themes that can be difficult to approach and express themselves, experience peer support and importantly challenge stigma and discrimination.
Our festival is open to everyone in our community and we hope you enjoy finding more about what we do here regularly.
Recent posts
- Capturing Wellbeing: Exploring creativity through photographyWhen we started Ayrshire Film Co. CIC, I held a strong belief that film could positively impact our local community. What took me much longer to realise was this; the act of participation often creates a greater impact than the final product itself. Over the years we’ve been involved in many community projects and haveContinue reading “Capturing Wellbeing: Exploring creativity through photography”
- Not an Artist – But the Arts Still Support My WellbeingBy Karen Lee, Health Improvement Officer As someone working in Public Health, I’ve always leaned more naturally toward physical activity when it comes to supporting my own mental wellbeing. A good long walk, a trip to the gym, or a swim clears my head and helps me feel more able to cope with the upsContinue reading “Not an Artist – But the Arts Still Support My Wellbeing”
- Official launch of the Scottish Mental Health Arts festival 2025 and North Ayrshire programme!🎉 The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2025 programme – @mhfestival – is now live! Taking place right across Scotland from 20 October to 9 November, this year’s festival led by @mentalhealthfoundation explores the theme Comfort & Disturb. This year there are hundreds of events spanning film, theatre, music, visual art, writing, workshops and more.Continue reading “Official launch of the Scottish Mental Health Arts festival 2025 and North Ayrshire programme!”
About us
Our North Ayrshire mental health arts festival team is made up of partners from North Ayrshire Health & Social Care Partnership, North Ayrshire Council, NHS Ayrshire and Arran and third sector organisations. In addition we have a range of supporting artists, technical staff and volunteers all of whom help us to deliver a programme of events and projects each year.
Our joint working approach means we can utilise the skills and expertise of all those involved ensuring the festival is accessible to all and responds to the needs of our communities, services and supports.
We work closely with the Mental Health Foundation who run the National festival programme with regional partners. Connecting with other programmes across Scotland allows us to show case our work on a larger platform and continue to promote the importance of this work we all take great pride in.
Our North Ayrshire festival is now in its 3rd year with previous years themes being around ‘Revolution’ and ‘in/Visible’.
North Ayrshire Mental Health Arts Festival 