£128K boost for mental health initiatives in Scottish Museums

We are delighted to share that a joint fund between Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) and the Foundation has awarded £128K in grants to organisations in Scotland.

The Creative Minds fund aims to support museums and partnering mental health organisations to create engagement opportunities for people experiencing mental health issues. It focuses on developing inclusive programming, strengthening collaborations between Scottish museums and mental health organisations, and enhancing the museum sector’s confidence and capacity to create more inclusive spaces.

Each of the six projects aims to use art and heritage as tools to alleviate mental health challenges, foster social connections, and enhance community involvement.

Awards have been made to:

University of Stirling Art Collection

Partnering with Artlink Central, the University of Stirling Art Collection will use its award to support a pilot project entitled Creative Collaborations: Student’s Art and Wellbeing, a social prescribing programme aimed at university students experiencing mental health difficulties

University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh’s Prescribe Culture team will deliver a project called Notable Difference, centred around collective music-making and inspired by the musical instrument collection at St Cecilia’s Hall: Concert Room and Music Museum. Notable Difference will focus on working with men experiencing mental health issues.

Fife Cultural Trust

Fife Cultural Trust will partner with NHS Fife’s Psychology Team for their project, Wellbeing at the Museum. The partnering organisations will develop a series of creative workshops and volunteering opportunities based around Fife Cultural Trust’s museum collections.

Glasgow Life

Glasgow Museums will collaborate with Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH) to develop a programme that connects communities with collections and explores the benefits of museums for people experiencing mental health issues. They will also deliver a programme of staff training and develop a good practice guide for museum delivery staff to increase their mental health-focused engagement.

Live Argyll

Campbeltown Museum will work with the Kintyre Link Club, a mental health and recovery charity for Live Argyll’s Creative Connections project. The project will offer creative opportunities and experiences for members of the Link Club while raising the profile of the museum as a safe and welcoming space in the Kintyre area.

Tonic Arts Programme (NHS Lothian Charity)

NHS Lothian Charity’s Tonic Arts Programme will support health care workers experiencing mental health issues. The project will centre around the Tonic Collection, a diverse art and design collection displayed within NHS Lothian healthcare sites – and will engage staff in art tours, artist sessions, and creative responses.

The Baring Foundation’s Arts and Mental Health programme includes (and welcomes) funding work by museums and galleries engaging people with mental health problems. Our work so far has supported:

• a creative singing project by the Imperial War Museum and the Soldiers’ Arts Academy to kick off a major new IWM exhibition on the psychology of war called War in the Mind. You can watch a video of the song the Soldiers Arts Academy choir composed and performed here.
• a new grant to the Holburne Museum in Bath to work with neurodivergent young men experiencing poor mental health, as part of our recent Creatively Minded Men open round;
• a report – Creatively Minded at the Museum, which captures creative work with people with mental health problems around the UK, including in Scotland (Glasgow Museums and the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh);
• and a podcast resource created by Tyne & Wear Museums & Archives to support heritage and museum professionals setting up creative and heritage programmes in mental health and addiction recovery settings.

(Photo: Glasgow Museums ‘Art Extraordinary’ collection of outsider art on display.)