The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival Highland (SMHAF Highland) is a collaboration between local groups and third sector organisations coming together across the Scottish Highlands to plan a programme of events to promote engagement in activities which can benefit mental wellbeing, challenge stigma and raise awareness.

This is part of the national Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival which takes place every autumn and is overseen by the Mental Health Foundation in Glasgow. 

July 2026
The annual art exhibition by Rag Tag n Textile will be from Tuesday 4th - Friday 7th August 2026 from 10am - 5pm at Blank Canvas (next to Love from Skye) in Broadford.
The annual SMHAF Highland exhibitions in Inverness will run at Eden Court Theatre and The Bike Shed in October, before moving on to the Thurso Art Gallery in November and December 2026. Details coming soon about how to submit your artworks! Learn more on the Exhibitions page of our website.

Walk a Mile update:
We excited to announce the date of our annual Walk a Mile event in Inverness. This will be held on Saturday 4th July 2026 starting at 11am from the Fisherman's hut (Bught Park) and going to Falcon Square. See full details on our Walk a Mile page. Inverness Openarts will be running a free workshop on Tuesday 2nd June so you can create a banner or poster to bring along.
If your local walking group would like to get involved in a walk in your part of the Highlands, then we'd love to hear from you! We can all help to spread the word that talking about mental health issues is a good thing.
Wick Walking Group will be organising their Walk a Mile on Tuesday 23rd June, along with Castletown Walking Group on Wednesday 24th June, while Tongue Walking Group are taking part on 1st July.

May 2026 update:
We are absolutely delighted that SMHAF Highland collaborating alongside Creativity In Care, UHI Inverness and Highlands Psychoanalytical Collective have successfully secured funding through Highland Third Sector Interface's Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund for Adults for the next two years. 

April 2026 update:
We are now on Instagram so please feel free to follow us!

March 2026 update:
For the 20th anniversary of the Scotland-wide festival, the theme for 2026 will be "Reflections". 

November 2025 update:
We are delighted to announce that our application to OSCR was successful and SMHAF Highland is now a registered charity - click here for details. We are now a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (number SC054677).

September 2025 update:
SMHAF Highland is currently an unincorporated association and we are applying through OSCR to become a registered charity (SCIO).
We are excited to launch the 2025 festival programme! The theme for the 2025 festival is "Comfort & Disturb".