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 Project Exhibition, celebrating 5 years of the project. It set the tone for an afternoon of openness, curiosity and gentle discovery.
The Forum began with a welcome from Niomi Hamilton, who introduced the day’s theme, Comfort and Disturb. This idea speaks to the way creativity can both settle us and unsettle us; it can hold us gently, but it can also push us to see ourselves and others differently.
We then moved into Drawing With Breath, a grounding activity led by Lucy Bell. Using breath as the starting point for mark-making, participants were invited to draw intuitively, without pressure, skill or expectation. It was a quiet but powerful reminder that creative expression can begin anywhere, with a breath, a gesture, a moment of presence.
Spotlight: Art Journal Project: Celebrating Five Years
After this, we gathered for a spotlight session led by Liz McQueen, sharing the story and impact of Art Journal Project as it marks its fifth year.
This social prescribing initiative supports adults across Dumfries & Galloway who are experiencing barriers such as isolation, ill health, disability, trauma or poverty. Art journaling gives participants a visual diary, a space to express experiences with honesty and freedom, without pressure or judgement.
Liz shared stories of participants who have grown in confidence, discovered their creative voice or found new tools for emotional regulation through journaling. Many spoke of it as a lifeline, a quiet place to reflect, connect and heal.
Her talk reminded us how small, accessible creative practices can create profound and lasting wellbeing impacts.
Getting to Know You: Simon Hart
One of the highlights of the afternoon was a Q&A session with Simon Hart, Director and CEO of Arts Dumfries & Galloway. This series has become a regular part of Third Sector’s Forum events, offering a deeper look into the people who shape arts and wellbeing across the region.
Simon spoke about his forty-year career in the arts, which has taken him from classical singing to theatre, from puppetry festivals to museum leadership. Before joining Arts D&G, he was Director of Taigh Chearsabhagh Arts Centre & Museum in North Uist. Prior to that, he spent over two decades leading Puppet Animation Scotland, championing puppetry, visual theatre and animation nationally and internationally through the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival and the Puppet Animation Festival.
His reflections on creativity, leadership and the evolving cultural landscape of Dumfries & Galloway offered an inspiring glimpse into how the arts can hold both personal meaning and regional potential.
Table Talks: Comfort, Discomfort and the Creative Journey
Throughout the day, the Forum hosted two Table Talks, inviting participants into small group conversations exploring the meeting point between creativity and mental health.
The Art of Becoming: Creativity as a Journey, Not a Destination
This conversation explored creativity as a space where both comfort and discomfort are essential. Participants reflected on creativity not as polished outcomes, but as a process of experimenting, failing, recalibrating and trying again. Imperfection and uncertainty were welcomed, even celebrated, as vital parts of the journey. In this framing, creativity becomes a form of mental health support in itself: a safe container for chaos, conflict, reflection and growth.
Creative Pathways: From Prevention to Recovery
The second discussion looked at creativity through a wider wellbeing lens, how creative practices can support prevention, early intervention and recovery. The group explored how creativity can soothe and stabilise, but also disturb, disrupt and provoke new perspectives. Children, young people, adults and practitioners all experience creativity differently, but the underlying theme remained consistent: it helps people reframe mental health, build resilience and imagine new possibilities.
What emerged most strongly throughout the day was that creativity isn’t just an add-on to mental health, it is a catalyst – for connection, for insight and for change.
We are grateful to Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway, all our contributors and everyone who attended for helping to make this special SMHAF edition of the Mental Health Forum such a meaningful and collaborative experience!
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