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. 

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.

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".