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Calling neuroscientists to work with a local Charity on a public engagement activity in partnership with the Festival of Ideas

Calling Cambridge Neuroscientists to submit their research images, videos and any 3D model to be used in a large scale arts installation of 'Inside an Unquiet Mind' for the University of Cambridge Festival of Ideas.

Inside an Unquiet Mind is a show by Squeaky Gate - a creative production and education charity, empowering people through the arts. Squeaky Gate deliver a wide programme of live performance, creative training and accredited learning, focusing on producing and performing strong and original work.

Inside an Unquiet Mind offers a unique opportunity for individuals with mental health problems to show the wider world an insider glimpse of their experiences.  The public are  invited to enter and interact with  a series of pods that  depict a range of mental health problems including psychosis, bipolar affective disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder , personality disorder, depression/anxiety. There will be performances throughout the evenings of ‘The Drug Suite’, a modern opera that explores perceptions and experiences of psychiatric medication from a patient’s point of view.
Alongside these insider experiences we would like to offer the opportunity for the scientific world to share the same stage and offer their own perspectives on these illnesses.  We are particularly looking to the neuro-scientific and pharmaceutical communities to contribute their latest research and theories. There is a designated exhibition pod with space for multi-media display and space for representatives to engage with the public. There is also space within the entry/exit lobby and bar to exhibit and interact with the public.

Squeaky Gate creates an open and collaborative environment where people are encouraged to grow creatively, build confidence and skills through working together to produce a new piece of music or art and, if they choose, receive a recognised qualification for doing so.

The Charity promotes the transfer of these long term skills into employment, and provide a platform for work experience and professional training, encouraging people to use their experience to help others make their own path.

Ultimately, we use the arts to help people feel good – about their lives, their future, themselves. When people feel good, they can achieve something unexpected, good stuff happens, and when good stuff happens, change can too.

Inside an Unquiet Mind is a multi-sensory, fairground-esque arts installation that explores the amazing phenomena of the human mind when under stress. As part of Cambridge University’s Festival of Ideas 2010, Inside an Unquiet Mind is staged in a deserted warehouse tucked away behind Newmarket Road and will open to the general public free of charge during the last two weekends of October.

For further information, and to submit your research images and find out how you can get involved in this local Charity working in the mental health areas please contact:

Jane Rich
Company Manager
Squeaky Gate
jane@squeakygate.org.uk
01223 969002

Posted on 13/08/2010