Exhibition: Balancing Acts

Time: Open daily, 9am – late (times may vary)

Location: Midlands Art Centre (MAC), Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, B12 9QH

This exhibition at Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) brings to life a special project between artists, young people and NHS staff at Parkview Clinic, an inpatient mental health service for children and adolescents in Birmingham. Led by the arts and mental health charity Hospital Rooms, the project asks: what could a mental health hospital look and feel like if creativity and kindness were at its heart?

Over 40 workshops, from weaving and clay sculpture to spray painting and printmaking, brought artists and young people from Parkview together with members of the community to re-imagine Parkview’s spaces. Some sessions even took place here at MAC, helping the project grow beyond the clinic walls.

The young people involved told us they wanted to leave behind a legacy: “something for a friend. About my journey and growth as a patient and person. Something that future young people feel inspired by, something light and colourful that people will notice and remember.”

The exhibition takes its title, Balancing Acts, from a work created through this process by Xavier Leopold, and also includes artworks by Peter Liversidge, Farwa Moledina and Rhys Coren. These are among thirteen new commissions that will be permanently installed at Parkview Clinic.

Hospital Rooms invites you to immerse yourself in the ideas and ambition of the young people and artists, and to imagine new possibilities for mental health hospitals as places of colour, care and hope.

Hospital Rooms Parkview Project in partnership with Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust. Supported by Arts Council England, Old Possum’s Practical Trust and the Circles of Art.