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Balmy Army

The Balmy Army – Introduction

Ever been told to ask for help? Only to be told help wasn’t available. 

Ever been told you’ve got a problem, but something inside you says, hmmm am not quite sure it’s JUST me? 

Ever get the feeling young people’s mental health care could be so much better? 

Enough excuses. We aren’t the problem.

The Balmy Army is an art, activism and mutual care project for pissed-off people. 

For young people struggling with your mental health, your friends and families, and those working in mental health who are on your side.  Our aim is to work together across Greater Manchester (now the whole of England) to imagine and make real a simpler, kinder, easier to access mental health support and care, that Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services are currently prevented from doing.

Begun in 2022 young people, artists, madpride organisers, radical dreamers, disability justice inspired doers and everyone else trying to cope have come together. What do they want? Mental health support that works. When do they want it? About 15 years ago…

Balmy Army is a long term project mixing art, activism and mutual care.

Message from ‘the vacuum cleaner’ about why he wants to do this:

“I went through mental health care as a young person, it was crap then and it’s crap now. Nothing seems to get better, however much those in charge say it has. I was in an adolescent  hospital 20 years ago, has the mental health care got any better since then? Not enough, let’s put it that way. (I totally acknowledge there are some cool people doing good shit in young peoples mental health care – I’m not attacking them, we need you sooooo bad).

How many more excuses should we accept?

I want to work with YOU to imagine, dream up and then make real the mental health care you desire, that your friends deserve and that adults just don’t seem to be able to give you.

Enough excuses.

I’m starting a long term project called Balmy Army. It’s part art, part activism and part mutual care project. I want to help you fight for what should be a basic right…. good mental health care. I want to do this because I know how much bad mental health care affected me. (i’m lucky to still be here). It’s going to start in Great Manchester – but hopefully could be a national thing…

SO, let’s do this thing, let’s make an army of young people who are struggling with their mental health. Let’s not be ashamed of who we are, let’s be fucking proud of what we can do together. Let’s imagine something brilliant and kind and that actually works.

Let’s do thing safely, sustainably, let’s do it right and take our time… but not like 20 years (lol).”

A note about language… the vacuum cleaner says

“The language around mental health is still in debate, I think it always will be. In a similar way to how it is around race, gender, sexuality and so. That’s a good thing, we’ve always got to get better at it, and try to reduce harm.

In a lot of my art work I use the language around mental health in a playful way, words like mental, mad, barmy, crazy. For me personally I want to reclaim these words as something to not be ashamed of. Perhaps in a similar way to how Queer has been reclaimed. I understand not everyone is down with this. But I also want you to know that I use these words with love. Because I love crazy people. We are amazing. We are really good at surviving, and helping others, and being empathic, and standing in solidarity with other people who face mainstream BS. Being mad isn’t easy, and it’s really important to be honest about that, but equally I’m not going to be ashamed of who I am, what I have been through, and how I want to talk about my experience. I want to be able to love my madness – so much so I did a project called Madlove. I’m not going to let it define me, but I’m also not going to ignore it.

So that’s why you can see these kinds of words all over my website, I’m not belittling your struggles, I’m acknowledging them, I’m standing in solidarity with you. And I’m not ashamed of that.”

Want to get involved ?

Aged 12 to 25(plus), want to get involved in a huge art project about the state mental health care and be involved in trying to make it better for yourself and other? Balmy Army is back in 2024.

If you would like to get involved in this please email – pissedoffpeople@balmy.army

Balmy Army – Part 1 for Manchester International Festival

Balmy Army – Exhibition, Action Lab and Space for Mutual Care

  • Shot of a wooden table, a blank back wall framed with coloured pieces of paper, and some pillows hanging from the ceiling.
  • Image of the gallery space at HOME in Manchester. In the centre is a long making-table lined with chairs of different colours and styles. The walls are white with brightly coloured ellipse shapes pasted onto them, and a bright striped pillar sits in the middle of the space.
  • Wide-lens gallery shot shows the space and a wooden chest of drawers near the entrance.
  • Wide-lens gallery shot from a different angle.
  • Gallery shot of various egg-shaped coloured pieces of paper covering a white wall.
  • Image showing the gallery wall, which is white with clusters of colourful egg/ellipse shapes stuck onto it. A large pink circle is stuck to the floor and creeps up the wall.
  • Close up of two of the egg-shaped bits of paper. Both are pink and have a handwritten letter written on them.
  • Different coloured egg-shaped bits of paper with drawings of houses on them. One shows a drawing of a castle with the text "special interest castle, (no door = no gatekeeping)" on it.
  • "The joy of being weird" written in black pen on purple paper.
  • Black handwriting on coloured paper.
  • The words "how were you supported in the past?" are written in black pen on a pink, oval-shaped piece of paper tacked to the wall. Below it are other brightly coloured pieces of paper with drawings on them.
  • Black handwritten letter written on yellow paper.
  • Photograph of a hand-drawn A4-sized poster which is taped to a wood background. The drawing is of a pink croc shoe with the text "I'm not gonna hit croc bottom" written in colourful letters.
  • A pair of white crocs with the words "HOPE" and "UNITY" written on them in black pen.
  • Wide-lens shot of the elf tent, pillow chandelier and table.
  • A long wooden table lined with wooden chairs in the back room of the gallery. Above it is a chandelier made out of pillows.
  • Wide-lens gallery shot of the back room of the Balmy Army exhibit. There is an elf tent to the left, a table in the middle, and brightly painted stepped seating on the right.
  • Wide-lens shot showing the back room of the Balmy Army exhibition from a different angle. We can see white pillows hanging from the ceiling like a chandelier.

Balmy Army – A Movement. (The first Balmy Army march through Manchester City Centre, Summer 2023)

  • A group of young people hold a hessian sign with the words "Balmy Army" written on it in pink letters. They are marching as part of a busy protest, and a crowd is seen behind them holding handmade cardboard placards.
  • Young people are shown leading a march for mental health through the streets of Manchester, holding a banner that reads "Balmy Army."
  • A young person holds up a handmade cardboard sign that reads "splash splash cams is trash."
  • Young people lead a protest for mental health. Behind them people hold cardboard placards.
  • A group of people marching for better mental health services.
  • A young person in a wheelchair shouts into a megaphone as part of the Balmy Army March through Manchester. People hold handmade cardboard placards in the background.
  • A young person is shown mid-chant as part of the Balmy Army march, they are holding a banner.
  • Young people begin the march through Manchester, holding a "Balmy Army" hessian banner.
  • A shot of the Balmy Army performance in festival square, Manchester. A young person preforms on a darkly lit stage, as audience members sit on the floor and watch. It is lit a dark purple.

The first iteration of Balmy Army was made for Manchester International Festival, 2023.

From sharing poetry to making placards, to social media takeovers and mass acts of civil disobedience, Balmy Army made an action lab during Manchester International Festival where anything (safe) can happen. It’s a space for the Balmy Army to play, plan protests, give performances and even print ‘madidas’ t-shirts.

During the festival there was a serious of events to get involved in, and an exhibition you could visit at HOME.

Events included….

Balmy Army: A Welcome and Sharing 

NHS staff. How are you? (No really, how are you?)

Balmy Army Intervene in the City – so illegal we can’t talk about it…

How Do We Create A Movement For Mental Health? 

Inspired by the Balmy Army, Guardian Live bring together a host of names to explore how we shift the dial on young people’s mental health. Video coming soon.

Carers and parents. How are you? (No really, how are you?)

Prepare to Move Together 

Balmy Army: a Movement. Join the Balmy Army as we create the world’s biggest and silliest march for less crap mental health support for young people

What is Balmy Army anyway? Balmy Army isn’t a model of working in mental health, but what is it?

This will be an informal event involving sharing of critical reflections and conversations and is designed for disability activists, researchers, young people, disability organisations, artists, partners and mental health workers. Led by Tara Brown and Nicky Sim, Balmy Army’s critical friends, alongside lead artist, the vacuum cleaner, and organisers of Balmy Army.

Balmy Army Podcasts

Hannah (with closed captions in English)

Ellie (with closed captions in English)

Credits

To date Balmy Army has been made by 80 young people from Greater Manchester, with the vacuum cleaner, Kevin Edward Turner, Lizzie Chapman, Toni-Dee, Caz Hughes, Evyn Seaton-Mooney, Rory Aaron, Rosalyne Norford, Gráinne Flynn, Cara Looij, Sascha Gilmour, Charlie Clark, HOME, Factory International, Contact, 42nd Street, Gorse Hill Studios and the Hope and Horizon Wards at Fairfield Hospital.

Special shout out to Lucy and Lisa from HOME – the best.

  • A masked hand drawn person holding a sign saying 'This is what a crazy person looks like"
  • A hand drawn person holding a sign above their head saying 'I Went Mental and All I Got Was This Lousy Sign'
  • A hand drawn person, using a wheelchair, holding a sign saying 'The Future Is Unstable'
  • A masked hand drawn person holding a sign saying ' I heart being young unemployed sad disenfranchised and fucked over by society'
  • A hand drawn person with dreaded hair holding a megaphone