In 1999, the National Arts in Mental Health Forum held a groundbreaking conference in Loughborough, where it adopted a new name: i am- the inspired arts movement. In the conference report, it tracked its origins back to The Arts Britain Ignores, published in 1974. Calling for cultural diversity in the arts, and focusing on the need to recognise and support Black and Asian arts, the arguments made there have now been applied to other excluded groups – including by 1995, people working in the arts and mental health field. That year an open meeting for artists, users, survivors, therapists and other participants was held by East Midlands Shape, and the idea of the forum was born. A year later it held this first National event…….

roll over for full color images

Photographs by Nuala Hamilton