Name: Heart of Glass
Price range: $

“Labelled as the suicide capital of England and Wales, St Helens needs some love, some Madlove…”

For our 2019 festival, we invited artist and mental health activist the vacuum cleaner (aka James Leadbitter) to take over a vast empty shop and create a space for art, conversation and care.

A long table set with a pink table cloth, tea set and decorations. A number of people sit around the table. A woman in a pink wig is serving tea. Greenery hangs down and there is lavender on the table.

From 1-30 November 2019, the vacuum cleaner and Heart of Glass invited you to be part of a ‘Madlove’ Take Over - an arts festival for mental health that is transforming the old St Helens Argos store on Church Street into a space for tea, chats and moments to relax.

Together, we're brought 13 local, national and international artists and communities together to make exhibitions, films and new performances for this pop-up space - all aimed at supporting people’s mental health. You can find out more information about what was in the space below.

A person in a manual wheelchair is on stage with their hands in the air. An audience of people watch and clap.

A group of people sit around a wooden table with mugs and a cake stand on the table. They are in conversations with a person who stands with their hands on the back of their chairs.

Two people, a young person and an adult stand in the center of a room screen printing. Around them hang some pieces of cloth with a map design printed on them.

A person with short curly hair and glasses sits behind a Yamaha keyboard and a microphone smiling. On a projector screen behind them there is a person sitting in an arm chair with headphones on.

In front of a bright pink glitter curtain a group of people stand and kneel with pink accessories on and framed with pink inflatable frames. They are smiling and posing for a photograph.

Did you join us for this autumn festival, made with and for the people of St Helens? Perhaps you explored the space and its artworks, chilled out in the bell tent or attended one of the many free events in the space? Did you take a seat around the Together Table and enjoy a brew blended as part of the Time for Tea project or get crafty and chatty in the Care Cafe?

You can find out more about what happened in the Madlove Take Over Space below and in this subtitled video.

#madlove #takeoversthelens

What happened in the Madlove Take Over Space?

Take Care St Helens

A way to find special spaces and places in our town that offer support, advice and care, created by Hwa Young Jung and communities of St Helens.

Together Table

A place to relax, hang out and share a cuppa with friends.

Care Cafe

Take a seat, talk with friends, or even strangers. Artist Lois Weaver and U3A St Helens invite you to gather under the awning of care. Click here for more info.

Children’s Play Area

Watch your little ones play while you enjoy a cuppa on the Together Table.

Hana Madness - paintings

A series of colourful paintings by award-winning Indonesian artist and campaigner exploring her own experiences of mental health.

Change Grow Live - Monsters (a collaboration with Hana Madness)

A series of colourful characters made by service users from Change Grow Live, sharing stories of recovery and how we are understood by our community. Click here for more info.

Madlove Portraits

See if you can find a familiar face in this series of portraits of St Helens folk, captured by photographer Stephen King.

Mr Men Do Psychiatry

Laugh / cry at artist / activist Dolly Sen’s mental health parody of the Mr Men series. Click here for more info.

Software Garden

Watch and listen to this meditative music video album nurtured over two years of collaboration and workshops. Made by artist Rory Pilgrim, with a poet, a singer, a choreographer, a rapper and a disability activist. Click here for more info.

Bell Tent

Relax in this chill out, quiet space.

The Suicide Chronicles: Chronicle One

Watch and listen as three women privilege us with access to a private world through these short films. A project by Joanne Lyne, Angela Samata, Lisa Vint with Mark Storor. Click here for more info.