Posters of Positivity: Mental Health Campaign Takes to the Streets of Dundee

Published on 25 October 2018

A city-wide poster campaign, featuring images and words relating to mental health, is to be unleashed on the streets of Dundee next month.

As part of the ‘Foolish Optimism’ roadshow, two young women are taking art workshops out into the community, encouraging a range of different groups to talk about, and document, their mental health stories.

Last night, Wednesday 24 Octoer 2018, they held their first two-day session with Girls’ Group at Arthurstone Library.

After watching short clips of the Foolish Optimism film, audiences will be asked to consider its messages and jot down their own interpretation and perspectives on mental health issues, whether in words or images. Messages collected from a diverse range of audiences will then be transformed into posters, some of which will be billboard size, and diplayed around the city from mid-November until mid-December. The posters will also feature QR codes, linking people directly to the Foolish Optimism website.

The workshops, and national roadshow, follow on from the release of the film which premiered at The Steps Theartre in Dundee on World Mental Health Day, Wednesday 10 October 2018.

Jacqueline Goodall (20), a third year Fine Art student at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) is organising the workshops in conjunction with Jacqueline Whymark, social entrepreneur, project manager, community organiser and arts curator.

Jacqueline Goodall explained, “The whole purpose of Foolish Optimism is to get people talking about mental health and to gather the views and stories of a huge cross-spectrum of society. We therefore decided that it would make sense to go out into the communities and encourage debate. We all have mental health but everyone has a different interpretation of it and some people find it challenging to express that interpretation. Some of us like to write words and poems, others are visual thinkers, preferring to draw or paint so we are going to take these varied and unique messages and make posters out of them to display around the city, spreading the word that young people are not alone when facing these challenges, and to get people talking.”

All work created in the workshops will be maximised – if not on the posters themselves, through exhibitions, during the Foolish Optimism finale event in December and fed into the final Foolish Optimism report which will be fed into a number of reviews now taking place across the country.

Following last night’s workshop, future events will be held at

1. Girls Group, Arthurstone Library, 7 November, 6.30pm – 8.30pm
2. Clanz, The Attic Lounge Thursday, 25 October and 1 November, 7pm – 8.30pm
3. The Klub, Tayside Council on Alcohol, Thursday 8 November, 5pm – 7pm

Subject to funding, it is hoped that the poster campaign will extend to Perth and Glasgow.

Foolish Optimism was made possible by funding from the Year of Young People National Lottery Fund and Life Changes Trust.

For more information, and to watch the film, please visit https://www.foolishoptimism.org

ENDS