This World Mental Health Day find out how we’re getting serious about arts and health…

We’re an organisation that prides itself on being open, honest and frank when it comes to mental health.

Over the years, our staff team and associate artists have clocked up countless hours witnessing the transformative power of the arts can have on people of all ages.

We know that getting involved with, or experiencing art can have a positive affect on people’s overall wellbeing and can contribute to good mental health.

We might not be experts by training, but we are experts by experience.

The challenge we face is: how do we evidence this?

Introducing State of Mind

We’re embarking on a four year research project exploring the impact the arts may have on health and wellbeing.

We’ll be looking at how we can better evaluate this impact so we can demonstrate more clearly to funders and policy makers that accessible art for all really does matter.

We’ll be working in partnership with Merseyside Youth Association and Liverpool Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and aim to deepen our understanding of, and contribution to, the field of young people’s mental health in relation to art practice and participation.

Alongside this, we’ll be embedding mental health and wellbeing across all aspects of our work.

We’ll be trialling new and innovative ways of working: we’ll be training staff; we’ll be evaluating our current policies; and we’ll be implementing real and lasting change to ensure everyone at 20 Stories High feels empowered to prioritise their mental health and wellbeing at work and beyond.

We’ve already made a start…

Find out how we went back to nature on our Mindful Residential Retreat here and how we’ve been trialling Mindfulness Practice with Young People and Staff here.

Funding for our State of Mind work has been provided by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.