Welcome to the opening night speeches on launch night of the Inside Outsider Art Exhibition, this is also available on our in2gr8mentalhealth YouTube channel. The exhibition ran in Edinburgh in October 2023 at the Out of the Blue Drill Hall. It remains a powerful body of art works by mental health professionals with their own experience of mental health difficulties. Opening night was sold out to an audience of nearly 100 people. The art works can be viewed now on our Inside Outsider online art gallery on our website, and we have opened a page to hear from you about any responses to the gallery you might want to share with us.
The opening night speakers, mental health professionals with their own experience of mental health difficulties too, were:
(0 mins) Don McJimpsey, Trainee Art Therapist, Lead for producing and curating the art exhibition. Don opens to introduce the exhibition and other speakers.
(8 mins 13) Bridget Grant, Chair of the British Association of Art Therapists (BAAT) Scotland.
(16 mins 17) Mandy Leonard, Art Psychotherapist, Lecturer and Former Lead of the BAAT Dual Experience Special Interest Group.
(30 mins 40) Dr Natalie Kemp, Founder CEO of in2gr8mentalhealth CIC and Clinical Tutor at the University of Hertfordshire Clinical Psychology Programme.
(46 mins 40) Greg Bromley, Art Psychotherapist, Artist and Social Worker.
The Inside Outsider art exhibition was part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, funded by Thrive, and produced by Don McJimpsey in association with in2gr8mentalhealth CIC.
Thank you to all artists who bravely expressed what it is like to be a provider of mental health service and have you own lived experience of mental health difficulties - the pain and the transformations.
Thank you to all who came to view the art in person, and who seek to experience it on our online gallery. We can't tell you how amazing it was to have our community of mental health professionals with their own experience of mental health difficulties respond in this way, we are forever blown away and grateful to our peers for their passionate engagement with our work. We'll leave you with some pictures from the set up and opening night of the exhibition below.