This two-day event explores productive, radical, contemporary encounters between the arts and mental health, bringing together clinical, artistic and research perspectives that offer a re-interpretation of contemporary mental health science and practice, with a view of imagining a different future.

This year's theme is Masked/Unmasked – the wearing of physical masks to face the pandemic is a prompt to reflect on the metaphorical masks we wear to face the world, how we put these on to protect us from an unforgiving social world at the price of hiding the beauty of our differences. Interventions will examine how the arts can help us see behind the masks and sustain a new vision for mental health. 

We welcome service users, mental health professionals, artists and researchers and any members of the general public interested in the way the arts can contribute to mental health.

See the full programme

Highlights

Onsite day - 10 June

• Theatre Temoin's work 'NHS Yarns' comes to Queen Mary and will be followed by a discussion panel about the pandemic and impact on NHS and other key workers
• Performances and participatory creative and discussion workshops
• Exhibition of selected artistic work submitted by conference participants (see here below for how to submit)

Book Day 1

Online day - 11 June - Live Captioning Available

• Artist’s Keynote:"Birdsong from Inobservable Worlds" by acclaimed arts Dolly Sen
• Maria Grazia Turri on a sketch for a Manifesto for the Arts and Mental Health
• Parallel panels including:
• Autistic unmasking and performing Beingness
• Phakama on the language of resilience
• A theatre company unmasking the life and work of a forgotten mad artist from the Faroe Islands
• Masking and masculinity

Book Day 2

Thanks to our funders: Arts and Culture, Centre for History of the Emotions, Drama Department and Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Diversity and Inclusion at Queen Mary.

Contribute

Mad Hearts is inviting contributions on the theme of Masked/Unmasked - whether thinking of physical masks and the pandemic, or the metaphorical masks we wear to face the world, the masks that we put on or take off in different circumstances. How do we protect ourselves from others, and how do we draw closer to others? This may take in themes of isolation, connection, compassion and flourishing.

You are invited to submit a piece of creative work plus a 300 word reflection*

Works and reflections that the conference conveners select as particularly pertinent to the themes of the conference will be made available on a shared online platform accessible to all conference delegates. Some will also be selected for a physical art display. Three will be nominated for a prize and invited to present at the end of the online conference Sat 11th June.

* You may use any creative medium for your presentation, for example: music, dance, monologue, painting, photography, prose, poetry, sculpture. See https://sites.google.com/view/madhearts2021/home and www.outofourheads.net for examples.

Submit your work

Organisers: Maria Grazia Turri, Bridget Escolme, Louise Younie, Sumita Majumdar and Rupert Dannreuther.

The event is organised by the MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health

Image: Breaking Free from the Chains of Expectations by Natasha Alia Razman

 

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PAST CONFERENCES

FUTURING MENTAL HEALTH THROUGH THE ARTS

A two day online event organised by the MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health

10-11 June 2021 | Online

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Image: Shades of Solitude by Grace Catchpole

 

Highlights

Confirmed keynote speakers:

1. Daniel Regan - Photographer: 'Leading with Lived Experience'

2. Dr Tom Cant - Consultant Psychiatrist: 'Hopelessness is a lone voice: an introduction to Open Dialogue'

3. Amanda Griffith - Lived Expert Consultant: 'The Power Threat Meaning Framework'

4. Julie McNamara - Playwright and Theatre Director: 'Staging Creative Activism: Using theatre to speak truth to power'

LIVE CAPTIONING IS AVAILABLE FOR OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER SESSIONS

Plus: 

• Panel discussion by the Solitude project at Queen Mary, led by Professor Barbara Taylor
• Panel discussion by the Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary, with Prof Thomas Dixon, Dr Rhodri Hayward and Dr Tiffany Watt Smith
• Panel discussion on the role of theatres in public mental health with Roxana Silbert, Artistic Director of Hampstead Theatre and Dani Parr, Director of Participation and Work for Young People at Almeida Theatre.
• There will also be a creative enquiry activity for all, and opportunities for small group discussions in response to provocations and creative work submitted to the conference. See here below to send your contributions:

Photo from Julie McNamara's 'Voices from The Knitting Circle' - (knit1) © Zeynep Dagli

PAST CONFERENCES

2020

SOLITUDE AND THE ENCOUNTER

This one-day webinar explores productive, radical, contemporary encounters between the arts and mental health, bringing together clinical, artistic and research perspectives that offer a re-interpretation of contemporary mental health science and practice.

We welcome service users, mental health professionals, artists and researchers and any members of the general public interested in the way the arts can contribute to mental health.

 

2019

Mad Hearts: The Arts and Mental Health

A one day online event organised by the MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health

19 June 2020 | Online

Mad Hearts: Arts and Mental Health Conference Brochure [PDF 392KB]

This two-day conference explores productive, radical, contemporary encounters between the arts and mental health, bringing together clinical, artistic and research perspectives that offer a re-interpretation of contemporary mental health science and practice.

Thematic sessions will range from the importance of narrative and meaning making in mental health, to the pedagogical use of the arts as progressive intervention, and arguments for a radical shift in mental health practice. The programme is enriched by theatre performances on the theme of mental health and an art exhibition. Delegates will have the opportunity to contribute their responses through a 'long table' discussion; this will provide the stimulus for the panel discussion with stakeholders and international experts that will round off the conference.  

We welcome mental health professionals, researchers and any members of the general public interested in the way the arts can contribute to mental health.

For more information please contact: Maria Turri m.turri@qmul.ac.uk