Trustees Annual Report
March 2024 to April 2025
Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival (NIMHAF)
NIMHAF
Duncairn Avenue Belfast BT14 6BP
NIC 103013
Introduction
NI Mental Health Arts Festival (NIMHAF) was delighted to celebrate our 11[th] Anniversary and Festival in 2024. This period has also been significant in carrying out a strategic review of NIMHAF with plans for major structural and strategic changes across the organisation. We have secured new permanent staff with support from Futurescreens Ni /Ulster University, expanded board membership to encompass a broader range of knowledge, skills and expertise. NIMHAF provided opportunities for continuous professional development (CPD) for staff and Board Members with support from the Dormant Accounts Fund, as well has highlight ongoing opportunities for CPD for artists within the sector across Northern Ireland in collaboration with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI) and INSPIRE.
Overview of the Year
We have continued to exceed our own expectations in this year, and expanded upon the diverse range of artforms, regional spread through engaging audiences and artists across the island and overseas. Activities and events were both virtual and face to face along with an extensive range of exhibitions leading into and beyond our Festival programme period. We celebrated the achievement of artists with lived experience of mental health challenges and the arts organizations regional and internationally who supported them and NIMHAF.
Our year started with the launch of the festival programme in April 2024 in The Long Gallery at NI Assembly Building , hosted by Orlaithi Flynn MLA, Member of the Assembly Health Committee. We welcomed an audience of eighty five participants including festival partners, funders, sponsors, artists, educators, politicians, and academics. The launch featured artists local, regional and international including from Afghanistan, China & Ukraine. We also screened ‘Stay Alive’ a film commissioned by Stephen Rea in support World Suicide Prevention Day.
Our 2024 Festival coincided with Mental Health Awareness Week and ran from 10[th] to -19[th] May 2024 and we were delighted to deliver a diverse, eclectic, dynamic and evolving programme with over fifty significant events including fringe events coordinated by Noelle McAlinden and Casey - Jade Campbell. Our programme embraced new and evolving visual and performance art, celebrated the creativity, lived experience and self-expression from both emerging and established national and internationally renowned artists such as Maurice Harron with his Solo Exhibition in the Alley Centre in Strabane.
Festival 2024 featured visual and performing arts, theatre, film, choral and musical ensembles, poetry, spoken word, photography, sonic art, panel discussions, human libraries, exhibitions and symposia, international and local residencies, printmaking and DJ opportunities. Our partner artists and organisations were all united in challenging the stigma of mental health and celebrating the pivotal role of creativity, self-expression, and the arts upon our mental health and wellbeing.
We continued, through our 2024 creative programme, to empower artists to express themselves and instilled confidence in creatives to come together, form, connect and share beyond the Festival 2024 period. We encouraged their collective work to flourish and come to life, creating a safe space to engage, express emotions ,and share lived experience and at the same time challenging the stigma of talking about personal mental health.
We established for the first time two regional symposia in between the two UNESCO Learning Regions/Cities of Derry/Londonderry and Belfast. The symposia embraced the theme of "Mental Health & Creativity Matters." and featured challenging, enlightening presentations and conversations with a range of guest speakers. Both Symposia highlighted the pivotal role and impact that creativity, self-expression and the arts can have upon our mental health and wellbeing. We emphasised the importance of providing forums for compassionate dialogue informed by those with lived experience, those drawn from the arts, culture mental health, education and community sector being brought together to advocate for changes in government policy.
The symposia were hosted by The Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council and The Mayor of Belfast City Council and were delivered in partnership with Ulster University in Belfast and the Guildhall in Derry-Londonderry. NIMHAF facilitated conversations and collaborations with artists, researchers, academics, community champions and activists in the ongoing pursuit of challenging stigma, working with and across Health Trusts, Government Departments and Local Authorities. We welcomed the opportunity for ongoing partnerships with The Baring Foundation, ACNI and Inspire in addressing these issues and were delighted to welcome the keynote speaker, NI Mental Health Champion, Professor Siobhan O'Neill-, along with a range of contributors including: Lee Knifton- Director of Mental Health Foundation, Dr Lucy Johnstone, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Rachael JohnsonArtist and Art Therapist, Professor Noreen Giffney Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, and Catherine Hemelryk Director of the Centre for Contemporary Arts Derry~Londonderry.
‘To the Wire’ was an exhibition, installation and accompanying film documenting the experiences of local artists on a residency in Beirut. This project was made possible with support from The Baring Foundation and ACNI featuring artists Dawn Richardson, who coordinated the project, Johnathan Brennan, Chad Alexander, John Doran, Barry Cullen and Emily DeDakis, Opportunities for dialogue and reflections with the participating artists were captured by and broadcast on Northern Visions Television (NVTV)
‘Moving canvas’ was a Fermanagh base project curated by Noelle Mc Alinden and culminating in an exhibition and film. The exhibition took place in the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh and the film commissioned on behalf of NIMHAF captured the experience of seven artists invited to explore and PAUSE in reflecting upon their own mental health and wellbeing and the impact upon their creativity and self-expression. Artists included Seamas McCannaidh, Julie Murphy, Kate O'Shea, Victoria Geelan, Sheila Llewellyn, and Margaret Stack.
NIMHAF continued to build momentum between Festival and presented a series of regional PAUSE CASTS facilitated by Noelle Mc Alinden & Damian Coyle and hosted by Arts organizations and Arts and Cultural Managers from local Authorities across Northern Ireland. We continued to promote opportunities to create space to pause, connect and build upon compassionate conversations across communities, promoting mental health and wellbeing through creative and innovative ways of working. Our commitment to supporting and being informed by Arts Managers NI culminated in a dedicated strategic planning & wellbeing day for Arts and Cultural Managers facilitated by NIMHAF and funded by ACNI.
NIMHAF as an organisation saw a number of key changes across the year. We invested in building capacity and the skills set of our Board Members, all volunteers drawn from arts, education, health, community & Business sector, with funding from Dormant Accounts and the Baring Foundation. Our Board CPD has included Board Away days led by Damien Coyle and training from Arts & Business and NICVA. NIMHAF recruited anew Board Members from across NI, established two Sub committees dealing with Finance & Fundraising and Programme and marketing. We greed the guidelines for strategic review of NIMHAF exploring our options for rebranding and changing our legal status. One of the key decision was agreeing that our activities are not confined to an annual Festival at a fixed point each year but rather an extensive regional programme of events across the year and informed by strategic alliances with Arts and Cultural Managers.
We expanded our Board of Directors and facilitated Board Member exits. NIMHAF acknowledges the major contributions to the establishment and success of the organisation made by departing Board members and we welcome their future involvement in our research and development programme. In January 2025 NIMHAF reverted back to having two Co-Chairpersons, Noelle Mc Alinden, leading on creative programmes and strategic partnerships, and Damien Coyle, leading on Finance & Strategic/ Organisational development. We secured support from founding Board Members and Research Fellows to support the creation of a Research & Development Panel and Futurescreens NI /UU funded the role of a new Creative Programmes Coordinator, Grace Fairley, who was appointment in October 2024. NIMHAF secured office space as part of a strategic collaboration with Mental Health Foundation and we continue to explore opportunities for a dedicated Office space in the future.
Income and Expenditure
This was another successful year for income generation with income exceeding expenditure and monies held in reserve and accrued for staffing costs and project activity.
Our income for 2024/25 was £47,047
Our expenditure for the period was £29,689
Funds held in reserves at year ending March 2025 was £50,396
Board membership at 2024/25
Noelle Mc Alinden Chair / Co-Chairperson
Damien Coyle Acting Treasurer / Co-Chairperson Frank Liddy Will Nicholson Trisha Forbes Emma Berry Bronagh Lawson Lisa Costine
Board Member Departures 2024/25
Lisa Costine stepped down September 2024
Dr Trisha Forbes QUB *
Dr Emma Berry QUB *
*stepped down as Board Members and will become members of NIMHAF Research and Development Panel
Staff
Casey-jade Campbell appointed as Interim Festival Coordinator from February 2024 to June 2024
Grace Fairley appointed as Creative Programmes Co-ordinator in October 2024
Conclusion
NIMHAF is indebted to all of funding and festival partners , The Baring Foundation, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, Future Screens NI / Ulster University, Dormant Accounts Fund, and The Mental Health Foundation. Our festival partners included: Derry City and Strabane District Council, Belfast City Council, Ulster University, the Nerve Centre, and we are grateful to all the venues and Local Authority Arts and Cultural Managers from across Northern Ireland. A special thank you to all participating artists, activists, arts organizations, volunteers, community and educational champions who made major contributions to our creative programme. We thank to our dedicated NIMHAF Team, our previous and present Board Members and Festival Coordinator. Finally, we look forward to building upon the success of previous years and continue to embrace the lessons learned and reflecting upon how lived experiences of mental health challenges may inform theory and practice in Mental Health provision.
For further information on NIMHAF activities across the region for 2024/25 please visit our website (www.nimhaf.org) and social media tools.
Noelle McAlinden
Damien Coyle
Damien Coyle
Co-Chairperson
Co- Chairperson