City Lit are inviting submissions of contemporary art work for our annual Mental Wealth Festival Exhibition in the City Lit Gallery, taking place this October 2026.
Submissions are invited from any current City Lit students and staff, alumni of City Lit art courses, and artists based in London and across the UK (who are able to drop off and collect work from the gallery).
The exhibition will take place from the 3rd - 11th October, to coincide with City Lit's Annual Mental Wealth Festival & World Mental Health Day.
Themes
We welcome submission of art works in any medium that explores any of the following:
- mental health or wellbeing
- art and physical health
- emotion and self expression
- care and caring
- social connection
- the wellbeing benefits of connection to nature, the environment, or community
- expressive or conceptual explorations of identity, heritage, race, sexuality, gender, disability, neurodiversity, etc.
- any other related ideas/concepts
Submission Criteria
- Submission is open to current City Lit students and staff, alumni of City Lit art courses (if you've ever studied with us, you're welcome to submit), artists and makbers from the Centre for Learning Disabilities Education, and artists based in London and across the UK (able to drop off and collect work from the gallery).
- Artwork can be in any media, form & scale (3D/2D/Digital/Craft)
- Artists may submit one work for consideration
- If your work is selected for the exhibition, it must be available between 1st October 2026 - 12 October 2026.
Submission Process
- To submit work for the exhibition please complete the following Submission Form.
- The form requires you to submit your name, the course(s) you are taking or have completed (if applicable), details about the submitted work, a short text about the work you've submitted and how you feel it relates to the festival themes, any installation details, and high quality images of your submitted work.
- For those with additional access needs, please feel free to submit a short video application (4 mins max) to ian.tucknott@citylit.ac.uk by the same deadline.
- All submitters will be notified as to whether their work has been chosen or not for the show by 31st July 2026.
Good luck!
We look forward to receiving and seeing your work, and if you have any questions, queries, or difficulties with the submission form please contact ian.tucknott@citylit.ac.uk.
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