Mental Wealth Festival 2021
The seventh Mental Wealth Festival, hosted by City Lit, took place from 10-15 October 2021. The Festival featured over 60 events by more than 100 contributors, from mental health campaigners to health sector innovators, world-renowned artists to business leaders, to famous arts institutions and leading charities. The Mental Wealth Festival provided a forum for informative, challenging and inspiring discussions and workshops focusing on ‘Positive Impact’, and ways to adapt to the changes in our relationships with ourselves, other people, work, home, and the communities in which we live. The festival included stories and tools to help people recognise and respond to mental health issues with positive impact as we adapt and evolve in these extraordinary times.
As usual, City Lit offered a programme of workshops throughout the week, introducing people to the therapeutic power of learning and feeding the mind. This year, we learnt more about mental health and parenting from Suzanne Alderson and Tanja Sharpe; how to have better conversations with Dr Kathryn Mannix and Paul Farmer (CEO of MIND); women’s mental health in ballet at the Royal Opera House; and art and creativity with Antony Gormley at the British Museum.
Following a year that has raised the profile of mental health across the UK, City Lit's seventh Mental Wealth Festival continued to build on that awareness and empowered individuals to adapt and move forward with positive impact.
Videos
Our Partners 2021
The British Museum
The British Museum’s remarkable collection spans over two million years of human history and culture. Over 6 million visitors every year experience the collection, including world-famous objects such as the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures, and Egyptian mummies.
Beyond Words
Beyond Words provides books and training to support people who find pictures easier to understand than words. Whether supporting somebody with a learning disability or communication difficulty, our products empower people through pictures.
The Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.
South London and Maudsley & Bethlem Hospital
Bethlem Hospital's aim is to be a leader in improving health and wellbeing – locally, nationally and globally. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness.
Thrive London
Thrive LDN is a citywide movement to improve the mental health and wellbeing of all Londoners. It is supported by the Mayor of London and led by the London Health Board partners.
Frazzled Cafe
Founded by City Lit Fellow Ruby Wax OBE, Frazzled Cafe meetings provide a free ‘talk-in’ place, where people who are feeling frazzled can meet to talk and share their personal stories in a safe, non-judgmental environment – a place where it’s ok not to be ok.