BEDLAM 2026 Symposium Opening: Artist Wellbeing in Practice

MAC Birmingham hosts the opening of the BEDLAM 2026 Symposium on Friday 6 November, with the first night focusing on Artist Wellbeing in Practice. It's the start of a two-day run that continues on Saturday 7 November, and the whole thing is part of BEDLAM, an arts and mental health partnership between Sampad, Birmingham Rep and MAC Birmingham. The partnership brings together artists, practitioners, communities and mental health professionals to look at the relationship between arts, creativity and mental health, and this year's edition centres on artist wellbeing.

The evening kicks off with a keynote speech by Rob Beck, founder of LGBTQTeeHee, and psychologist Dr Anthony Gifford. After that, the conversation opens up into a panel discussion chaired by Rachel Sharpe, Creative Learning Director at Birmingham Rep. Joining her on the panel are psychiatrist Dr Mahnaz Hashmi, musician and educator Soweto Kinch, and Public Health Officer Alex Robinson. It's a broad mix of voices — from the clinical and public health side to the creative and educational — all talking about the same thing from different angles.

The symposium sits within MAC's 'Community' strand, which is rooted in working closely with local communities to celebrate their diversity and support creativity and wellbeing for everyone. That's a good way to frame it, too: the whole weekend is about how the arts and mental health overlap, and the opening night puts the focus on the people making the work.

It starts at 5:00pm and runs for an hour and a half, so you're in and out in a reasonable window. Tickets start from £7.95, and there are free Companion tickets available, which reduce to £0 at checkout once you've logged in. If you're interested in how the city's arts scene and mental health services cross over, this is a good place to start.