First Fortnight is an Irish charity that challenges mental health prejudice and stigma through arts and cultural action. We harness the power of the arts as a catalyst for change and community engagement, creating opportunities to recognise, discuss, and support mental ill health.
Founded in 2009, First Fortnight has grown from an annual arts festival into an organisation working year-round at the intersection of arts, culture and mental health. Our work centres on two core areas: the First Fortnight Mental Health, Arts & Culture Festival and our Centre for Creative Arts Therapies.
At the heart of both is a belief in the transformative power of the arts – whether through witnessing a performance, participating in a creative experience, opening a conversation about mental health or engaging in a therapeutic process.
Mental Health, Arts & Culture Festival
First Fortnight’s annual Mental Health, Arts & Culture Festival takes place each January, using creativity to spark conversations and challenge the stigma surrounding mental health.
Through theatre, music, visual art, film, literature, comedy, workshops and discussions, the festival creates opportunities for artists and audiences to explore mental health from different perspectives. Our ambition is to make the beginning of each year synonymous with mental health awareness and to create spaces where conversations can happen naturally, openly and without judgement.
Participation is central to the festival. Alongside performances and exhibitions, participatory events invite audiences to engage directly in creative processes, reinforcing our belief that the arts can help people connect with one another and open conversations that might otherwise be difficult to begin.
Centre for Creative Arts Therapies
Our commitment to mental health extends throughout the year through First Fortnight’s Centre for Creative Arts Therapies.
The Centre provides free, year-round Creative Arts Therapy to children, adolescents and adults experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Our services include Art Therapy, Music Therapy and Drama Therapy and are delivered by fully qualified, IACAT-accredited Creative Arts Therapists.
Our therapeutic approach is trauma-informed, recovery-oriented, person-centred and strengths-based. Recognising that no two people are the same, the service is designed to respond to the individual needs of each person who engages with us.
Creative Arts Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses creative processes alongside verbal and non-verbal communication. For people who may find it difficult or overwhelming to express experiences through words alone, art, music and drama can provide other ways to explore emotions, experiences and trauma within a safe therapeutic relationship.
Our services have a particular focus on underserved populations, especially people experiencing or at risk of homelessness, who can face significant barriers to accessing traditional mental health supports.
Together, our therapeutic services and cultural programme allow First Fortnight to engage with mental health in distinct but complementary ways: providing direct therapeutic intervention while also working at a wider societal level to challenge stigma and change how we talk about mental health.
First Fortnight and Theatrum Animi
This experience informs First Fortnight’s role within Theatrum Animi, a European collaboration exploring the relationship between theatre and mental health.
First Fortnight leads the project’s public-facing communications and campaign development, creating a shared European campaign that partners can adapt and deliver within their own cultural and community contexts.
Through Theatrum Animi, we bring our experience in mental health, arts, cultural engagement and stigma reduction into conversation with partners across Europe. At the same time, the project gives us an opportunity to explore a question closely connected to our own work: what can happen when people encounter mental health through art?
A performance can invite curiosity. It can allow us to recognise something of ourselves in another person’s experience. It can start a conversation, challenge an assumption or encourage us to act differently.
Through Theatrum Animi, First Fortnight is helping to explore and share that potential across Europe.
