Skip navigation

Main menu

  • What's on
  • Art & Artists
    • The Collection
      Artists
      Artworks
      Art by theme
      Media
      Videos
      Podcasts
      Short articles
      Learning
      Schools
      Art Terms
      Tate Research
      Art Making
      Create like an artist
      Kids art activities
      Tate Draw game
  • Visit
  • Shop
Become a Member
  • DISCOVER ART
  • ARTISTS A-Z
  • ARTWORK SEARCH
  • ART BY THEME
  • VIDEOS
  • ART TERMS
  • SCHOOLS
  • TATE KIDS
  • RESEARCH
  • Tate Britain
    Tate Britain Free admission
  • Tate Modern
    Tate Modern Free admission
  • Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
    Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Free admission
  • Tate St Ives
    Tate St Ives Ticket or membership card required
  • FAMILIES
  • ACCESSIBILITY
  • SCHOOLS
  • PRIVATE TOURS
Tate Logo
Become a Member
Tate Britain Talk

Art, Representation and Mental Health

2 August 2023 at 18.30–20.30
a black and white drawing of a women in a dress cutting her hair surrounded by animals offering her food, with another female walking off in the left-hand corner.

Christina Rossetti Goblin Market 1865 Tate Library & Archive (London, UK)

Join us for this discussion on mental health and art chaired by Dr Maggie Matić

The relationship between creativity and our mental wellbeing is often stereotyped and generalised. Assumptions are made about the impact of symptoms on the creative mind and the negative effects of mental ill health romanticised.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddall all experienced mental illness during their lifetimes and the highly mythologised death of Elizabeth Siddall illustrates the ways in which narratives of illness can overshadow a creative career. She is often remembered in his story as a tragic muse rather than an artist and poet.

Inspired by the lived experiences of the artists exhibiting in The Rossettis this discussion will seek to explore how can we best support artists and art workers who experience poor mental health and mental illness, the therapeutic role can art play and explore how should we represent mental health conditions in art histories.

Dr Maggie Matić

Dr Maggie Matić (they/them) is a curator, writer and researcher with a specialism in contemporary feminist, crip and queer visual culture. Maggie is currently Curator (Studios & Residencies) at Studio Voltaire and is a trustee of The Feminist Library. They have previously worked at Tate, FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), The University of Liverpool and The Royal Standard.

Dinah Roe

Dinah Roe is Reader in English Literature at Oxford Brookes University, specialising in Pre-Raphaelitism and Victorian Poetry. She is currently editing Christina Rossetti’s Complete Poems for the Longman Annotated English Poets series, and working on a British Academy funded project examining the connections between Rossetti’s creativity and her work as a carer.

Niamh White

Niamh White is Co-Founder of Hospital Rooms with artist Tim A Shaw, which commissions world class artists to work in partnership with patients and staff to radically re-envision clinical mental health spaces. She is a visual arts curator and Senior Research Fellow at Norwich University of the Arts.

Abbas Zahedi

Abbas Zahedi lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include Nottingham Contemporary, UK (2023), CAPC, Bordeaux, France (2022-2023), Anonymous Gallery, New York (2022), Belmacz, London (2021), South London Gallery, London (2020). In 2022 he was awarded the Frieze Artist Award and has undertaken further projects at Eastside Projects, Birmingham UK (2023), Barbican Art Gallery, London (2022), Brent Biennial, London (2020, 2022), Whitechapel Gallery, London (2021). Zahedi’s works are included in the Tate collection as well as the Royal College of Art, London.

Tate Britain

Clore Auditorium

Millbank
London SW1P 4RG
Plan your visit

Date & Time

2 August 2023 at 18.30–20.30

Artwork
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Sign up to emails

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact
© The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, 2025
All rights reserved