World Mental Health Day Art Exhibition coming to Hull

Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating World Mental Health Day 2024 on Thursday 10 October by launching an art exhibition at Humber Street Gallery in Hull. The art exhibition will display a range of art and creativity produced by staff and patients from the Trust’s mental health inpatient units.

They are also inviting members of the public who have lived experience of managing their own mental health struggles to produce a piece of personal artwork and submit to the exhibition.

World Mental Health Day works to raise the profile of mental health and how everyone can support their own and other people’s. Everyone has mental health – it matters 365 days of the year, but 10 October is a chance for everyone to unite across the world to educate and raise awareness of mental health. It encourages everyone to look after their own mental health and those of others through greater understanding and empathy.

The role of creativity, and specifically Art Therapy, in promoting positive mental health is well documented. Art therapy can help people express themselves more freely, improve their mental health, and improve on their interpersonal relationships. The basis of Art Therapy is established on the idea that people can recover and feel better via artistic expression.

James Wear, Lead Art Therapist at Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust said, “As Arts and Creative Therapists working in the area of Mental Health, we value the creative process and its benefits to support people to explore and express difficult thoughts and feelings when words are hard to find. Our growing evidence base recognises the value creative activity has in people’s recovery. There has been a long history of Art and Dramatherapists going back over 50 years working in the Trust and its previous incarnations. The valued disciplines have evolved and developed alongside the changes in Mental and Physical service delivery locally and nationally.”

The event being launched at Humber Street Gallery, in Hull’s city centre Fruit Market, opens on Thursday 10 October and runs until Saturday 12 October. The event begins with a special event inviting all contributors to take a first look at the exhibition and remains open to the public over the weekend. The hope is that the exhibition will not only inspire positive mental health, but also raise awareness of the way in which art and creativity are vital in therapeutic methods for those needing support with their mental health.

For anyone wishing to submit a piece of art for the exhibition are invited to email the curating team on HNF-TR.communications@nhs.net before Friday 4 October. Entries can be sent as photographs or attachments via email, or for physical pieces of art please contact to arrange drop off at a nearby Trust site.