The comedian Ruby Wax spent years making people laugh on television.
Then she had a breakdown, checked into a psychiatric ward, and came out the other side. When she started talking publicly about it, audiences were taken aback.
It wasn’t that her mental illness was shocking. It was actually her honesty that was the thing catching people off guard. When she asked her audience members if they wanted a chance to talk about what was going on for them as well, they always did.
She brought that same openness to City Lit's Mental Wealth Festival when she spoke there a decade ago. The Festival has continued to create space for those conversations ever since.
12 years of conversations
Now in its 12th year, City Lit's Mental Wealth Festival is returning from 7-10 October in 2026.
The name is deliberate. The Festival’s Co-founder and Patron Baroness Sheila Hollins noticed that too often, mental health is framed as deficit – something you either have or lack.
Mental wealth works differently. Like wealth itself, it fluctuates. Sometimes we're in abundance; sometimes we need a boost. This distinction is what City Lit and Baroness Hollins built the Festival around.
At this point, for many City Lit students, it will already feel familiar. You may have attended an event, visited an exhibition or picked up the bright blue flyer sitting in the reception at Keeley Street.
Although the lineup changes each year, the premise stays the same. The Festival opens up conversations that are dedicated to restoring, supporting and celebrating mental health and wellbeing.
It does this through talks, workshops, panels and performances. At venues across London, the Festival brings together learners, professionals, practitioners, artists, writers and people with lived experience to explore what mental health actually looks like.
Topics and speakers
Over twelve years, those conversations have ranged widely. Care and recovery, yes – but also creativity, identity, loneliness, grief, resilience, work, and connection. Each year City Lit has added something new.
The speakers have reflected that breadth.
As well as Ruby Wax, Sir Grayson Perry explored trauma and the role of creativity in processing it. Alastair Campbell – author of Living Better– brought his own experience of depression to the Festival stage. Economist Noreena Hertz examined loneliness as one of the defining public health challenges of modern life. And Sir Antony Gormley offered a sculptor's perspective on wellbeing and finding peace.
There wasn’t one single message that connected all the speakers. What brought them to the stage was a willingness to be honest and explore the things that make us vulnerable.
This year, City Lit students have their own way to do that.
Join the conversation
As part of the 2026 festival, City Lit is hosting an exhibition celebrating creativity and expression across its learning community. Art earns its place in conversations about mental health precisely because it can hold what words sometimes can't.
And we’re inviting artists to take part.
Submissions are open to all current City Lit students and staff, alumni of City Lit art courses, and artists based in London and across the UK. This is your invitation to be part of a conversation that's been building for twelve years.
The exhibition will take place from the 3rd - 11th October. Submissions will close on 10 July 2026.
For more information about the exhibition, follow this link. For any questions about this year's festival, get in touch at mentalwealth.festival@citylit.ac.uk
Study at Health and Wellbeing at City Lit
The Mental Wealth Festival is not the only health and wellbeing initaive at City Lit. Throughout the year, we have classes running that teach you more about healthy living, help you to unwind, or help in changing your career.
