I hope some other psychiatric hospitals will take a leaf out of the Royal Edinburgh’s book.
I have been thinking about parades, prompted by a very good interview in Art Quarterly at the moment with Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich who for almost 20 years have been coming together with communities to produce public works of arts around social justice issues that then take to the streets usually for many weeks. This work was recognised in Edinburgh in 2024 at the Rice Talbot Gallery.
Processions or parades as a way of exposing the creativity of communities obviously has a long history, for instance in Mardi Gras. I will never forget attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans. This is gloriously a part of British artistic life each year in the Notting Hill Carnival. There are also examples through the excellent Creative People and Places funding by the Arts Council England.
These curated but community-led arts events also made me think of the work of a pioneering academic investigating arts in health who worked at Durham University, Dr. Mike White. As a community arts practitioner in Gateshead he was fascinated by parades as shown by this seminal work on lantern parades and community health.

Our recent funding for men with mental health problems has supported some great examples of parades. We went to see in development the fantastic, larger-than-life sculptures (see picture) and puppets at B Arts in Stoke on Trent. This is part of the weekly Men Who Make Things workshops run by the properly bearded Dan and Rich. These large pieces were then used in the Kidsgrove Lantern Parade. Jack Drum Arts in Crook, County Durham, has also been making work for parades. They took to the street in the Crook Winter Light Festival last November. Mike White’s enthusiasm certainly lives on.
These are examples of existing community parades where people with mental health problems contribute one distinctive element. Here is another recent example in Leeds and one from Tunbridge Wells to show that things happen down South too. But how about parades that centre people with mental health problems?

We are now also supporting the wonderful NHS Lothian Charity: Tonic Arts, and it was at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for mental health that I heard about last year’s extraordinary Snail Parade. Organised by Artlink Edinburgh, It is part of the Hospital’s Summer Sessions programme of work and, in specially designed costumes, staff and patients parade around the extensive grounds of the hospital. This joyous event is about to happen again.
Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich’s exhibition at the Rice Talbot Gallery was called ‘Searching for a Change of Consciousness’ and I think that this is what the parade at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital is doing too. Parading in the open air, in fantastic costumes, having fun, taking pride in working with people with mental health problems and taking pleasure in being creative, while living with a mental health problem. I hope some other psychiatric hospitals will take a leaf out of the Royal Edinburgh’s book.