ARCHES Recovery College is calling on artists, service users, and community members to express their experiences and perspectives on recovery through art. The competition aims to celebrate creativity as part of mental health recovery and to showcase lived experience within a national publication.
Submissions are welcome in any artistic medium, including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, textile art, mixed media, digital art, collage, printmaking, and ceramics. Participants are invited to capture what recovery means to them—whether through emotion, symbolism, or storytelling in visual form.
To enter, participants should email a photograph of their artwork to [email protected], including their name and the title of their piece (optional). The competition closes at 5:00 PM on Friday, 28 November 2025, and the winning entry will be announced in early December.
The selected artwork will be featured on the cover of a special Recovery and Lived Experience issue of the Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, published by Cambridge University Press.
This initiative, supported by HSE Community Healthcare East Engagement, highlights the value of creative expression in recovery and inclusion across mental health communities.