Take a seat for hundreds of Comfort & Disturb events in Scotland this Autumn
The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, led by the Mental Health Foundation, has launched one of its most ambitious and far-reaching programmes yet, with hundreds of online and live events being held across Scotland from 20 October to 9 November. SMHAF 2025 is led by the Mental Health Foundation with support from Creative Scotland, Thrive Edinburgh, Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, the Baring Foundation, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, See Me, Scottish Recovery Network, and media partner The List, with donations from trusts and foundations including the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust and W.M. Mann Foundation.
The festival’s 2025 theme, Comfort & Disturb, references the famous Cesar A, Cruz quote that “art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. The expression is a nod to the power of art to challenge and console, through its transformative effect on people and societies. The theme was collectively chosen by SMHAF’s team of regional coordinators, along with the arts team from the Mental Health Foundation.
Five artists have been commissioned to create new works, responding to the Comfort & Disturb theme. The commissioned work will be shared on mhfestival.com and at live events during the festival. The artist commissions, by HUSS, Robyn Woolston, Erin McGrath, Jennifer Honnan and Rylan Gleave, range in form from autobiographical film to textiles and a comic book, and explore themes from post-natal depression to the impact of a brain tumour diagnosis.
One of our founding principles is to provide a platform for often marginalised artists to tell their own mental health stories in their own way. Sometimes this act can be comforting, sometimes it is disturbing, often it is most powerful when it is both. — Gail Aldam
Gail Aldam, Arts and Events Manager for the Mental Health Foundation, said:“As we prepare for SMHAF’s 20th anniversary in 2026, we are proud to be working on such a wide-ranging and ambitious programme. Our theme this year is full of creative potential and was a popular choice among our team of festival coordinators. It sums up a lot of what this festival is about.
“We have always sought to comfort people who are going through very difficult experiences, as well as disturbing the status quo by challenging stigma and prejudice about mental health. One of our founding principles is to provide a platform for often marginalised artists to tell their own mental health stories in their own way. Sometimes this act can be comforting, sometimes it is disturbing, often it is most powerful when it is both. And the Cesar A. Cruz quote argues that who we comfort or disturb is crucial, that art should challenge privilege, power and complacency at the same time as bringing solace to those who most need it. We are excited to discover how people across Scotland respond to this theme.”
This year’s SMHAF continues to expand its reach nationally. The annual Writing Awards will take place in Aberdeen for the first time, while the Festival’s new regional participatory arts fund, supported by the Baring Foundation, has resulted in festival events in Dundee, Aberdeen, Largs, and Argyll among other places.
With hundreds of events taking place across Scotland, highlights of this year’s SMHAF programme include:
- Are You Sitting Comfortably? (Civic House, Glasgow, 23 October), a one-day showcase of powerful new theatre writing that addresses mental health, featuring Emma Lynne Harley, Ese Ighorae, Milly Sweeney and Skye Loneragan, culminating in an evening of conversation and music with songwriters Emma Pollock, Jo Mango and Amy Duncan, in partnership with broadcaster Nicola Meighan’s A Kick Up The Arts podcast.
- The return of SMHAF’s International Film Awards (CCA, Glasgow, 6-8 November), showcasing films about mental health from all over the world, including UK premieres of DIAGNONSENSE (Norway, 2025), about director Ane-Martha Tamnes Hansgård’s struggle to separate her identity from her psychiatric symptoms; Chasing the Light (Ireland, 2024), a feature documentary about shocking allegations against a spiritual leader in West Cork, and a special screening of Palestine Comedy Club (Palestine, 2025), a documentary following six comedians from Haifa, Ramallah, Jenin, Hebron and the Golan Heights. There are also World Premiere screenings of Scottish short films Dreamscape (UK, 2025), a SMHAF commission directed by Meray Diner, and Edge (UK, 2025), directed by Kal Sabir.
- A weekly programme of film screenings at Glasgow Film Theatre, curated by Lauren Clarke, including a 35th anniversary screening of An Angel at My Table in 35mm, and an opening night screening of A Want in Her (Ireland, 2025), including a Q&A with director Myrid Carten.
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind, the biggest mental health themed group art exhibition in Scotland, which returns once again to Summerhall in Edinburgh, despite a backdrop of drastic funding cuts to mental health arts support in Scotland’s capital.
- The return to Scotland of Batsh!t, winner of the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, with dates in Aberdeen and Edinburgh.
- SMHAF x WayWORD, a partnership between our annual writing awards and WayWORD at the University of Aberdeen, with a live literary showcase curated by Ica Headlam featuring Iona Fyfe and Mae Diansangu.
Reflecting the festival’s grassroots approach, community groups and community-focused organisations across Scotland will also bring their own creativity to exploring this year’s festival theme through music, film, theatre, art and other events.
This year’s community‑focused programme offers a rich mix of participatory arts, exhibitions, performances and creative gatherings across Scotland. Highlights include new projects supported by SMHAF’s Regional Programme Support Fund, such as Bodymapping, a work‑in‑progress sharing by Citymoves Dance Agency in Aberdeen; the Spoken Word Supper Club hosted by Firefly Arts in Livingston; and Surrounding, a collaborative exhibition by Dundee‑based How It Felt, Amina MWRC and Dundee International Women’s Centre. Solo shows include ir/regular by Grant Glennie at Project Ability, Twelve by Heather Bestel at Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary, and The Colour of Grief by Sasha Shalmina at New Glasgow Society. In Edinburgh, Liminal, developed by young people with the Mental Health Foundation, Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity and artist Louise Fraser, explores the “in‑between” spaces of youth, from childhood to adulthood, wellness to illness, comfort to unease.
Other events range from the Big Drum Circle in Saltcoats, a vibrant, family‑friendly celebration of rhythm and community, to Let Laughter Light Up Your Life in Hawick, a confidence‑building workshop with comedian Jojo Sutherland, and Jean’s Bothy Podcast, a new six‑episode series from Argyll & Bute delving into this year’s festival theme.
The full programme for SMHAF 2025 is now online at www.mhfestival.com.
