A European laboratory for theatre and mental health practice
Theatrum Animi runs from March 2026 to August 2028, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union under Grant Agreement 101255376.
Why this project exists
Across Europe, theatre companies and mental health services have been working together for decades — often brilliantly, usually in isolation, and rarely with the time or funding to compare notes. Methods get invented twice. Evidence stays local. Practitioners retire and take their craft with them.
Nobody wrote the second one down.
Theatrum Animi connects nine organisations that already do this work well and gives them thirty months to do it together: to co-create, to document what they do, to train each other, and to open the results to anyone who wants them.
What we set out to do
Build shared methodology
Turn practice that lives in individual rehearsal rooms into methods that other organisations can read, adapt and use responsibly.
Strengthen the professional community
Create a Community of Practice where artists, clinicians, educators and people with lived experience hold the same conversation as equals.
Reach audiences honestly
Run a public campaign that speaks with communities rather than about them, and that treats audiences as participants.
Leave something behind
Publish open resources, recorded webinars and documented productions that stay available after the funding period ends.
How the work is organised
- WP1
Coordination
ATER Fondazione leads project management, quality and reporting, and keeps nine organisations in seven countries working to one plan.
- WP2
Professional practice and research
Method labs, artistic residencies, staff exchanges and a webinar programme, feeding a shared, evidence-informed methodology and an open Community of Practice.
- WP3
Public engagement
A Europe-wide campaign of performances, open rehearsals, post-show conversations and participation opportunities, coordinated by First Fortnight in Ireland.
- WP4
Communication and dissemination
This website, the Perspectives publishing strand, the newsletter, and the open resource library that outlives the project.
How we work
- Nothing about people with lived experience is designed without them in the room.
- We describe practice, we do not prescribe treatment. Artistic work sits alongside care; it does not replace it.
- We publish what did not work as well as what did.
- Everything we produce is accessible by design — captioned, described, plain-language and free to use.
Project timeline
- Mar 2026Kick-off in Modena. Partnership agreement, shared work plan, ethical framework.
- Sep 2026First method labs and staff exchanges. The Community of Practice opens.
- Dec 2026Campaign launch and website go-live. (current stage)
- 2027Co-created productions tour across the seven partner countries.
- Aug 2028Final methodology published, resource library opened, closing symposium.
Working in this field?
The Community of Practice is open to theatre-makers, mental health professionals, researchers, educators and people with lived experience anywhere in Europe. There is no fee and no membership form to sign.
