Home

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.

Booker Prize

Breaking News! The Writers’ Reading Group has been selected to shadow the Booker Prize again for the third time!! We shadowed the International Booker and the Booker in 2018- and absolutely loved reading Vernon Subutex by Virginie Despentes and The Long Take by Robin Robertson- and now its the turn of This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga.

Click here for a summary of our discussion if you want to know all about this book before you hear news of the winner in a couple of weeks time.

Tales of Lockdown News

Congratulations to everyone whose work has been posted on the Tales of Lockdown blog so far. Please check the three sections of Living in Times of National Emergency – Lockdown, Epidemics and War to see if we have already included your work.

But to everyone who submitted pieces to the Hearth Centre’s Tales of Lockdown blog:  A big thank you and apologies for the delay, but we will be getting in touch with you by email to let you know if your work has been selected for:

  • Inclusion on the blog

  • Inclusion in the printed anthology ( planned for publication later in 2020)

  • As a prize winner

You can visit Tales of Lockdown by clicking here

Cancelled Tour of Friends of Enemies:  We’re sad that many of our theatrical projects have been cancelled, including our semi booked 2020 autumn tour of Friends of Enemies (click here to see the trailer film and read more). However, we are fully intending to take it out again , and have been gathering national interest in a new Friends of Enemies project in Wales and the Borders in the spring or summer of 2021, which could be delivered observing social distancing, or might be an online set of events.

Revolving Door: Artistic director Polly Wright and the Hearth Board are currently discussing how to deliver Revolving Door as a virtual educational training tool. Please click on (click here to see the film and read more) for information about this stunning play about young suicide ( last performed as a sell out show  at the Bedlam festival at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in October 2019)- and please contact us if you’re interesting in the newly developed virtual resource..