PRESS RELEASE - Communities programme Anxiety Arts Festival London June 2014 Bringing London’s often hidden community health, creative arts and disadvantaged groups centre stage for the month of June 2014

1. Bringing London’s often hidden community health,
creative arts and disadvantaged groups centre stage for
the month of June 2014
www.anxiety2014.org
The Dragon Cafe, Good Enough Mum’s Club, Union Dance,
Playing On Theatre Company, Julie McNamara,
South London and Maudsley Foundation NHS Trust, Bethlem Gallery
Anxiety 2014, a London-wide arts festival exploring the relationship between anxiety and art,
brought to life by the Mental Health Foundation with genuine creative collaborations with London’s
finest and often hidden excluded communities, is showcasing work at top and some less well known
London venues throughout June 2014.
Community groups experiencing disadvantages due to mental health, social deprivation and poverty
of opportunity across London have been collaborating with a range of visual artists, drama, spoken
word and education partners. Throughout June they are offering Londoners insight into their multi-
faceted experiences of anxiety through the communities, visual arts, films and performing arts
programmes in the festival.
Many of the groups will be less well known to the wider festival
going audiences of London and this is the point.
Since January 2012 the projects have been developed to bring authentic lived experience into the
spotlight have been being formed and produced with everyday Londoners;
Sarah Wheeler, founder of Mental Fight Club and weekly Dragon Café sessions in Borough;
“It’s about time groups like ours are recognised by people across London as bringing
Self generated and genuine creative solutions to the problems we face everyday be it lived
experience of mental health, isolation through lack of money or access to transport. Most
people can relate to having an anxious time at one point of other in their lives. Our Oasis of
Calm for the festival is something different, fun, relaxing and healthy. We would love it if
journalists and TV came to see what we are all about…”
Why a festival about anxiety? Anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions in the
UK and, while arts and health is a growing sector, this is the first time artists are collaborating with
leading mental health professionals and academics to explore it in such detail.

2. The Festival also has a strong community arm and its programmes, in collaboration with hospital
out patients, men from Brixton Prison and people with lived experience of mental health, aim to
challenge commonly preconceived stereotypes and give individuals and groups
so often not heard or seen equal platform with professional artists where we have been working to-
gether these boundaries and hierarchies are not in place.
Anna B. Sexton, Communities Curator at the Mental Health Foundation, said:
“The festival has dared to put Communities at the heart of the whole programme and not to one side
as generally happens within most festivals. My vision for the programme is to challenge Londoners
to question where they make the boundaries of community begin and end for themselves.
What would a festival look like it those who are generally excluded from society formed events and
projects at the heart of our festival i.e. patients in locked wards, prisoners, recovering addicts?
We have worked with men in Brixton Prison since the summer last year who have co-curated their
own creative and mental health awareness learning programme ‘Strengthen Within’ happening 11th
and 18th
June in the run up to StereoHype Brixton 21st
June 2014.
Participatory arts programmes, for people with lived experience of mental health problems, include
the premiere of a new Anxiety Fanfare written by composer Jocelyn Pook and performed with a choir from the
Maudsley Hospital at the Wigmore Hall and Balance/Imbalance with Union Dance Company working with
dance, movement and music with adults in addiction recovery and community mental health care programmes.
An Oasis of Calm on every Monday throughout the festival in June at the dynamic Dragon Café at
St George the Martyr Church in Borough and Dulwich Picture Gallery offering Healthy Debates
about the nature of art making in communities and what does it mean to be labeled as an ‘outsider’
artist.
Playing On has been enabled to develop Hearing Things to be performed at The Albany 26th
June
2014 having worked with patients and doctors in locked ward situations to uncover new ways of
working in the NHS to inspire better levels of care and recovery.
ENDS
Notes to editors
To book tickets for Anxiety 2014 and for further information, please visit:
www. anxiety2014.org
For further press information about Communities programme and images please contact
Anna B Sexton on 07941 655 856 or asexton@mentalhealth.org.uk
The Mental Health Foundation has a long history of exploring the relationship between Mental
Health and the arts, having founded the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival in 2007.
Anxiety Arts Festival London 2014
The Anxiety Film programme will be hosted by the Barbican, Picturehouse cinemas, the National
Portrait Gallery and the ICA and include a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent classic the
Lodger at the Barbican with a new electronic score. Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir will be
screened at the JW3 Jewish Community Centre with a talk by Dr Nick Grey from the Centre for Anx-
iety Disorders and Trauma at the Maudsley Hospital.

3. The Visual Arts programme aims to shed light on the complexity and prevalence of anxiety in con-
temporary society through exhibitions, performances, residencies and talks at Peckham Platform
and the South London Gallery with an international residency based at Gasworks and Bethlem
Royal Hospital and an exhibition of art works at the Crisis Bermondsey Project
On Stage presents a programme of anxiety through music, the voice, spoken word and comedy. There is the
premiere of a new Anxiety Fanfare written by composer Jocelyn Pook and performed with a choir from the
Maudsley Hospital at the Wigmore Hall. There is a week-long programme of shows at the Albany Deptford
featuring Let me Stay by acclaimed disabled artist Julie McNamara .
Errol Francis, Head of Arts and Mental Health and Festival Director at the Mental Health
Foundation, said:
“The festival allows an open space to engage in a positive dialogue about anxiety and we
hope the opportunity to start this conversation at leading venues will further challenge the
stigma and discrimination that continues to surround mental illness.
“By exploring the links between art and anxiety, which affects us all to varying degrees, we
aim to channel a fresh perspective on anxiety and to approach it in a way which allows us to
live life to our full potential.”
Anxiety
Anxiety disorders are amongst the most common mental health problems in the world, affecting
about 1 in 20 adults in Britain (NHS 2013). Anxiety is experienced by everyone at times and is per-
fectly normal. However, people with generalised anxiety disorder find it hard to control their worries.
Their feelings of anxiety are more constant and often affect their daily life
There are increasing numbers of people suffering from anxiety disorder in the UK:
• the total number of people with anxiety disorders in England was estimated to be 2.28 million
in 2007. This is projected to rise to 2.56 million by 2026 (The King’s Fund 2008)
• 51% of people with anxiety disorders are not in contact with services (The King’s Fund 2008)
• there has been intense public discussion about increased levels of anxiety since the start of
the current economic recession (The Guardian, 2013; Daily Telegraph, 2012)
The Mental Health Foundation
Established in 1949, The Mental Health Foundation is the leading charity in the fields of mental
health research, policy studies and integrated service development. It is committed to reducing the
suffering caused by mental ill health and to helping everyone to lead mentally healthier lives by:
tackling stigma and discrimination; carrying out research; developing practical solutions for better
mental health services.
Supporters
Anxiety 2014 is core-funded by the Maudsley Charity. The visual arts programme is funded by Arts
Council England. University of the Arts London is the academic partner. Additional funding comes
from Britten-Pears Foundation, PRS Foundation for Music and The Peter Minet Trust.