Visitors to Galloway Community Hospital are now being welcomed by a striking new mural that beautifully captures the town’s rich healthcare history.  Commissioned by OutPost Arts, coordinators of Art in Healthcare in partnership with NHS Dumfries & Galloway, the illustrated installation titled “The History of Healthcare in Stranraer” transforms the hospital’s waiting area into a visual journey through time.  Created in collaboration with hospital staff and local illustrator Alice Griffin, the mural tells the evolving story of healthcare in Stranraer, from early infectious disease hospitals and maternity services to modern… Read more

We are delighted to have been awarded £282,199 through the Scottish Government’s Culture Collective fund, administered by Creative Scotland, to deliver a new community-led arts and wellbeing programme across North West Dumfries.  The funding will support Creating Space NW Dumfries, an 18-month project bringing together the communities of Lochside, Lincluden, Summerhill and Sandside through creative activity designed to improve wellbeing, strengthen local identity and increase access to culture.  Culture Collective supports organisations across Scotland to work with communities to shape the cultural life of their local areas. In 2026, twenty-three projects were… Read more

A reflection from our Creative Health & Wellbeing Director, Lucy Bell Where to begin on the highlights of 2025?  From my perspective as Director, this year has been about embedding – seeing partnerships and projects developed since 2023 take root and establish themselves in meaningful ways. The work is now bearing fruit, sometimes in expected ways and sometimes in ways that surprise us – which, in the arts and the third sector, is often where the most interesting learning happens.  Across DG Creative Wellbeing, we’ve continued… Read more

2025 has been another wonderful year for both Creative Toolbox and Art Journal Project, two programmes that sit at the heart of DG Creative Wellbeing. Together, they supported over 50 adults and young people from across Dumfries & Galloway to explore creativity, strengthen confidence, build friendships and discover new ways of understanding themselves and the world around them. This year brought growth, experimentation, collaborations, exhibitions, filmmaking, road trips and countless lots of little pockets of joy, along with more than… Read more

As we reached the final week of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2025, Press Play brought our SMHAF season to a joyful and heartfelt close. Held from 7th-9th November at The Standard in Dumfries, this vibrant exhibition showcased the creativity, courage and imagination of participants from two of our core community-based creative wellbeing (social prescribing) programmes, which support people experiencing a range of barriers: Art Journal Project (adults) and Creative Toolbox (young people). CREATIVITY ACROSS GENERATIONS Press Play celebrated the unique… Read more

At the start of November, we partnered with Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway to host a special edition of the Mental Health Forum at The Grain Store in Dumfries. As part of this year’s Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, the event brought together people from across the region to explore how creativity can comfort, challenge and inspire new ways of thinking about mental health. The room filled with warm conversation, hot drinks and quiet moments spent exploring the Art Journal… Read more

A message from our Creative Health & Wellbeing Director, Lucy Bell. 💡 From 2023 onwards, OutPost Arts has been FLAT OOT building, delivering, coordinating and evaluating ‘DG Creative Wellbeing’ – a partnership project that was made possible because of the amazing people working across arts, culture, social care and health sectors in our fabulous wee region… Before this project, D&G didn’t have a formal creative health programme, and while community creative prescribing was happening, it wasn’t receiving the attention, credit or… Read more

In partnership with NHS D&G, OutPost Arts recently launched ‘TWELVE’ – an evocative and deeply personal exhibition by artist Heather Bestel, which was presented as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) 2025.  Created during the first year following Heather’s diagnosis of complex PTSD, TWELVE is a series of twelve mixed-media works, each representing one month of her healing journey. The collection explores the rawness, fragmentation, beauty and transformation that emerge from living through trauma and recovery.  Using… Read more

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, connect with others and imagine new ways of being. At OutPost Arts, we believe that creativity can transform not only how we express ourselves but… Read more

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 and memory, Frank shares a deeply personal journey of loss and healing. We caught up with him to hear more about the exhibition, his volunteering,… Read more