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‘Unveiled’ a Collaborative Mixed Media Art Project by Amina MWRC & How It Felt

Amina MWRC CW How It Felt Team photo with 3 women standing in front of canvases with artwork of Muslim women wearing headscarves.

27th November 2024

by Rachel Simpson & Arati Ahmed

Throughout September and October 2024, Amina Dundee’s Creative Well-Being group were involved in a special project as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2024. 

‘Unveiled’ was a mixed media art and mental health project for Muslim & BME women living in Dundee, coordinated and led by Dundee-based social enterprise How It Felt and Amina Dundee. 

Through focus groups and supported discussions the women explored their experiences of mental health, stigma and identity, discussing their thoughts and feelings around what wearing a hijab means to them. 

During creative workshops participants crafted beautiful hijab portraits using paper, fabric, sequins, pen, paint and ribbon, to be included in the final exhibition. 

On Tuesday 22nd October, to mark the end of this incredible project, the ‘Unveiled’ exhibition was opened for a private viewing. Family, friends, participants and funders were able to visit the exhibition and explore the final artworks on display. 

The exhibition was open to the public on Thursday 24th October 12-3pm, in line with the final week of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, and additionally open on Thursday 31st October, during ScrapAntics’ ScrapThursdays session. 

The final exhibition was a huge success, amplifying the voices of BME and Muslim women in Dundee, and creating a positive, inclusive, eye-catching celebration of the hijab. This project really highlighted the importance of hijabs for Muslim women, increased mental health awareness in the BME community and fostered a strong sense of pride among the Amina Dundee group.

Here’s what some of our visitors had to say:

  • “Congratulations on creating such powerful and meaningful artworks with the ladies”
  • “Wow! This is beautiful” “Very encouraging! Amazing work” 
  • “[my mum] always says she can’t do things and she’s not creative, but look at this!” “She was really nervous but excited to come”
  • “So eye-opening to know more about Muslim women. Interesting to find out how much women wear the hijab with pride. Lovely exhibition”
  • “Amazing exhibition, can’t wait to see and learn more” 
  • “Beautiful exhibition. Very informative and fun” 
  • “Very beautiful and creative Muslim women doing art, very colourful” 

A huge thank you to everyone who took part in the focus groups, creative workshops and visited the final exhibition for ‘Unveiled’. It was a huge privilege to be able to work on this beautiful project with you all!

– The How It Felt team.

Lead Artist: Arati Ahmed

Project Coordinators/Facilitators: Rachel Simpson and Deborah Chapman of How It Felt

Supported by: Scrapantics – Community space for workshops and final exhibition 

Kindly funded by: SMHAF x Mental Health Foundation Regional Support Fund 2024 and Dundee Volunteer and Voluntary Action’s Community Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund 2024. 

Led by the Mental Health Foundation, the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) is one of the world’s leading arts events dedicated to mental health.

How It Felt is a creative social enterprise based in Dundee, providing supervised and interactive puppet-building, drama, film-making workshops and community art projects with an emphasis on mental health and emotional well-being. The How It Felt team are regular collaborators and supporters of Amina Dundee, working together to provide engaging creative workshops and local trips exploring mental wellbeing and emotional resilience.

Check How It Felt out on Instagram or scroll through our Linktree for all our details. 

Amina’s Creative Well-Being programme is free and open to all Muslim and BME women in Dundee and Glasgow. Register for Creative Well-Being Dundee by calling 07732 751138, or for Glasgow Creative Well-Being Here.

To learn more about our upcoming activities, visit our event calendar. Find out more about our services here.

Amina MWRC is a Third Party reporting centre for hate crime. To report a hate crime contact us by calling our Helpline at 0808 8010301 or visit our hate crime awareness page.