The Hearth Centre is a centre for Health, Education and the Humanities with Art at the Heart. Hearth uses the arts to animate key issues in mental health, social care and the humanities, and promote well being - which we do through theatre productions and literary events and courses.
New developments in the use of Revolving Door in Medical Education
Since 2023, Hearth’s play, Revolving Door, about the need for early intervention in psychosis, has been rolled out to all fourth-year students at the University of Birmingham Medical School in their psychiatry rotation in association with Dr Erin Turner, Head of Academy at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. The play, in conjunction with a Forum Theatre workshop, received overwhelmingly positive responses, with students reporting that the intervention improved understanding of psychotic illnesses, and that it supported skills development by embedding techniques for the assessment of patients’ mental state. Students also commented that the emotional impact of the play was such that it helped their understanding of the patient experience.
The Hearth Centre is immensely proud to announce that Dr Erin Turner recently confirmed that there will be funding for another three year roll out to over 400 students a year, starting in September 2025, which will hopefully have an impact on future doctors, whether they take up specialisms in psychiatry or not.
Watch the Hearth Centres film 'Art at the Heart' below. Art at the Heart is an update and reworking of their 2017 film 'Anti Depressants without the Side Effects' originally made in collaboration with Cardboard Zebra Creative.
Living with IPF
Living with IPFThe Hearth Centre’s new film about living with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis will be launched on July 11th from 5.30-8.30pm at the Midlands Arts Centre. Tickets can be purchased by calling the MAC on 0121 446 3232.Hearth Centre writers and actors developed monologues from research transcripts about the experience of this challenging respiratory disease, and the importance of ambulatory oxygen to patient’s quality of life and worked with Bonny...
Putting it about
Putting it aboutOctober 12th 2023 saw a revival performance of Putting It About as part of the Birmingham Reps Great Revival of our Women and Theatre plays"Set in an imagined high security NHS hotel, Putting It About explores the impact of HIV on women. Written in the 1980s and set in the 1990s, a group of women find themselves quarantined by a faceless government. capturing the apocalyptic horror of the...
Friends of Enemies News
Friends of Enemies NewsPolly Wright, Artistic Director of Hearth is very proud to report that her short story Friends of Enemies is published in the anthology Thursday Nights. Friends of Enemies draws on the letters to Polly's grandmother from Gualtiero Lenzi , an Italian Prisoner of War, who was placed on their farm in North Wales in the 2nd World War. Polly received Arts Council funding for development of the...
Pride Event 1st June 2023
HEARTH Pride Event 1st June 2023The next hearth Centre event will be at the Heath bookshop. Hearth actor Todd Jennings joins Polly Wright to read their Pride Poetry Picks on June 1st to kick off the Heath’s Pride events.Click here for more info
New event 25th March 2023 – Sandwell Library
New event: Saturday 25th March 2023
My City My Home Podcast Launched
My City My HomeThe project My City My Home was a creative writing competition run by SAMPAD in Birmingham, UK open to women either from or with a connection to Birmingham, Pakistan or Bangladesh. The project was part of a groundbreaking three year programme to establish Birmingham as a global centre for contemporary arts from Pakistan or Bangladesh. The programme was supported by the Arts Council, the British Council and...
Poem in Your pocket at the Bedlam Festival: 16th November 2021
The Return of Poem in Your Pocket Does enjoyment of a good read and beautiful poetry improve your well being? Do you find that sharing the appreciation through reading aloud increases your mental well being?Polly Wright and friends invite you to an evening of shared poetry and stories which will lift your spirits and reduce stress. We have done Poem in Your pocket sessions before, but this time it will be...
Writers Reading Group Online at the MAC
Writers Reading Group Online at the MACSign up for our wonderful Writers' Reading Group Online this spring at the Midlands Arts Centre! As usual we meet fortnightly on Wednesdays , for a six week course, starting on April 21st.As it's online- you can sign up from wherever you are in the country. Click here for full details of the course and here to discover the check out the extraordinary creativity of the Writers Reading...