Event
Date
9 - 20 May 2025
Location
Events across Northern Ireland
The NI Mental Health Arts Festival is back for its 11th edition, with the festival theme of CathARTSis. The festival aims to challenge the stigma associated with talking about our mental health and wellbeing, celebrating the significant role of our creativity, self-expression and the arts as a catalyst for change.
Interpreting this year’s theme, Catharsis refers to ‘the release of emotions through the process of creative expression, leading to a sense of emotional renewal.’ Many of us know firsthand from lived experience the power of the arts to provide safe sanctuary, a place to shrink and grow, that can help transform ourselves as well as our communities. The arts can provide a catalyst for change, finding release, resolution and renewal in challenging times.
Venues across Northern Ireland will host a diverse programme of visual and performing arts, forums for dialogue and creative exchange, talks, tours and workshops, poetry, spoken word, comedy, film, music, and dance.
The programme includes creative practice that challenges stigma and provokes debate, providing insights into how artists have channelled their lived experience to inspire others. The festival continues to champion both emerging artists as well as established artists, side by side.
NI Mental Health Arts Festival Symposia Belfast & Derry-Londonderry
NIMHAF Symposia return to Belfast & Derry – both UNESCO Learning Regions. The opening symposium takes place in Belfast on Friday 9 May at The MAC. The closing symposium is on Tuesday 20 May at The Guildhall in Derry-Londonderry.
These free symposia will feature keynote speakers from contexts including the arts, mental health and wellbeing, the voluntary and community sector, and education, including significant learning from those with lived experience informing academic research. One of the speakers will be Emma Eager, Project Co-ordinator of artsandhealth.ie.
The symposia will provide challenging and enlightening presentations, forums for dialogue and creative exchange, challenge stigma, and celebrate the power of creativity, self-expression and the arts upon our mental health and wellbeing.
Check out the Programme of Festival Events & Fringe Events for 2025 at www.nimhaf.org
