Author: Malcolm Struthers

This November, we’re proud to be part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) – a nationwide celebration exploring how art, film, music and performance can open up conversations about mental health. The 2025 theme, “Comfort and Disturb,” invites us to think about how creativity can both soothe and challenge, helping us process emotions,…

This World Mental Health Day, we’re shining a light on the role creativity can play in supporting wellbeing. NHS volunteer Frank Ritchie has brought his love of art and music together in The Art of Giving – an exhibition currently on display at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary. Through colourful, uplifting works inspired by song…

Back in May, we launched the newest Creative Toolbox project, with sixteen new young people joining us alongside five returning peer mentors.  The group arrived with budding curiosity, eager to meet each other and play. It was exciting to see a new wave of energy enter Creative Toolbox at our Welcome Session.   This year, we…

We’re excited to share the report from the Creative Health & Wellbeing Symposium, hosted by OutPost Arts in Dumfries back in February. The event marked the first of its kind in our region, bringing together arts, health, social care and community professionals to explore how creativity supports health and wellbeing. Spotlight on the Symposium The day…

Between April and June 2025, Midpark Hospital’s Atrium was transformed into a vibrant creative hub through a series of clay workshops led by local ceramic artist Ruth Elizabeth Jones. Over six fortnightly sessions, patients and staff came together to explore a new skill, ceramics, and in doing so discovered not just the joy of creativity…

By Creative Toolbox Lead, Georgia Blue Ireland Earlier this year, I wrote about the writing workshops that Creative Toolbox participated in during their time as graduates and in partnership with The Stove on their Creative Caerlaverock project. At the end of May, The Stove put together a finale event for this which showcased the work…

Over the past year, our team has had the privilege of delivering creative wellbeing workshops at Midpark Hospital, a mental health facility offering inpatient care.   These sessions, aimed at both patients and staff, sparked something special. The staff embraced the workshops so enthusiastically that they began running their own weekly creative sessions for patients –…

by Youth Lead, Georgia Blue Ireland  OutPost Arts is built with many instrumental cogs, each helping the other to tick over and be the organisation that we are. We have our core team, our associate artists, our participants, our partners & funders, but as it’s volunteer week, I’d like to take the time to praise…

By Liz McQueen, Art Journal Project Lead As the lead of the Art Journal Project, I’ve witnessed numerous moments of transformation, but nothing quite captures the spirit of our work like the journey of our Peer Mentors. National Volunteer Week 2025 offers a perfect moment to reflect on this unique form of volunteering that has…

This April, creativity and community came together at The Bridge in Dumfries for the official launch of the 2025 Art Journal Project and Creative Toolbox. The joint event welcomed participants from both programmes, each designed to support creative expression and wellbeing in unique and age-specific ways. Attendees were introduced to their journeys with an in-person…