"Reflections" is this year's theme for the 20th anniversary of the festival and here in the Highlands, there will be creative workshops with SMHAF Highland partners including Arts in Nature, Creativity in Care, Green Tree Arts Studio, The Discovery College, Inverness Openarts, etc.
SMHAF Highland is also involved with The Highlands Dream Bank project in conjunction with the Highlands Psychoanalytical Collective and UHI Inverness. We're looking forward to creative opportunities around the theme of dreams too. Full details to follow.

Layers of Dreams

A FREE 7-Week Online Creative Programme with Green Tree Arts Studio
Have you ever woken with a dream, image, colour or feeling that stayed with you throughout the day?
Sometimes dreams arrive as fragments, symbols, landscapes and stories. Through creativity, we can gently explore what lingers and what matters.

This free 7-week online mixed-media art programme is inspired by this year's festival theme "Reflections" and also ties in with the upcoming Highlands Dream Bank project.

Together we will explore:
🚪 Entering the Dream Space
🪶 Fragments & Traces
🌿 Dream Landscapes
🦉 Figures, Animals & Presences
🌉 Thresholds & Transitions
🌳 Roots, Belonging & Collective Dreaming
✨ Gathering the Threads

Through art-making, reflection, imagination and connection, we will create a gentle space to explore identity, belonging, hope and the stories we carry.

No previous art experience necessary
You do not need to remember your dreams
Join from the comfort of your own home

📅Sessions will run online on Wednesdays from 22nd July to 2nd September 2026 (7 consecutive weeks).
We wish to be as inclusive as possible so 2 options for timeslots will be offered for participants to select. 10:30am or 4:30pm. The most popular choice will be selected for the group to run.
As this is funded through HTSI, places are for Highland residents only.
How to book - contact Nicola Kennell:
Email: contact@greentreeartsstudio.co.uk
WhatsApp: 07860 867118

Participants will also be warmly invited (if they wish) to contribute artwork to this year's SMHAF Highland exhibitions in Inverness & Caithness.

Inverness Open Arts

Info about the free sessions with Inverness Openarts. Contact invernessopenarts@waspsstudios.org.uk