2026 marks Art in Healthcare’s 35th anniversary. Established as a charity in 1991, Art in Healthcare has provided engaging and impactful creative opportunities to support and improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of individuals in Scotland. We have achieved this through two main programmes, the first, exhibiting our art collection in community, health and social care spaces and the second, through our Creative Communities programme, delivering a series of artist-led visual art workshops to people in their communities, both in person and online.
Room For Art is also celebrating a significant milestone, for the past 10 years the social prescribing project has been dedicated to support health and wellbeing through creativity. This exhibition showcases artworks created by the participants, volunteers and artists who attend. Led by quality teaching artists, the weekly workshops run across six areas of Edinburgh, offering a welcoming and safe space for connection, respite and self-expression.
Also featured in the exhibition are artworks created by those who attend other Creative Communities projects including Caring Spaces, Taking Art Home and Taking Creative Care, a creative toolkit developed and co-created with artists, art therapists, occupational therapists, mindfulness practitioners, unpaid carers and those living with long term health conditions across Scotland.
We are delighted to also be part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF), responding to this years theme of ‘Reflections’. The works showcased here expansively reflect on what the project means to people, the impact it has on their daily lives and the magnitude and strength of community relationships built during this time.
Art in Healthcare would like to thank all participants, volunteers and artists: Juliana Capes, Georgie Fay, Leo du Feu, Fraser Gray, Sally Price, Poppy Richards, Sam Rutherford and Kate Temple. A thank you to all our partners across Edinburgh: Action Porty, CoEL (Carers of East Lothian), North Edinburgh Arts, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, The Salisbury Centre, The National Portrait Gallery, VOCAL (Voices of Carers Across Lothian) and Whale Arts Agency.
10 by 10 – A Celebration of Room For Art, 20-22 October 2026, Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Edinburgh.
22 October 2026 by
Margaret McCormick