Festival School “The Balmy Disaster Class”
International Festival of Contemporary Theatre Homo Novus invites early-career social practice artists and mental health activists working in collective care, art and mental health to participate in the festival school The Balmy Disaster Class, taking place in Riga during the festival from 7 to 12 September 2026.
The Balmy Disaster Class is a festival school led by artist and mental health activist the vacuum cleaner (UK), inviting participants to explore the intersections of art, mental health, disability justice, care and access.
After more than eight years of working alongside children and young people around the aesthetics and politics of mental health, the vacuum cleaner brings together tools, methods, mistakes and experiences from this practice. Participation will provide participants with insight into working methods, ethical guidelines, language use, and specific activities that can be applied when working with young people. Through collective learning, artistic experimentation and critical reflection, participants will explore how art can create new ways of being, making and caring together.
Part laboratory, part residency and part temporary community, The Balmy Disaster Class creates space for conversations that do not usually happen, voices that are not often heard and forms of expression that do not fit neatly into boxes. The process will involve working directly alongside a group of young people with lived experience of mental health challenges. It will be messy, hopeful, challenging, funny and contradictory.
Who are we looking for?
We are looking for 5 early-career social practice artists, theatre makers and mental health activists with experience in community-based practice, participation, facilitation, activism or other socially engaged forms of working.
Participants will join a temporary learning community exploring the relationship between art, mental health, care and social change. We are interested in people who are curious, collaborative and open to experimentation, collective learning and conversations that do not have easy answers.
We particularly encourage applications from people with lived experience of mental health challenges, disability, exclusion or other experiences that inform their artistic or activist practice.
Requirements
- You must be 18 years or older.
- You should be able to communicate in English.
- You should be available to participate throughout the festival school from 7–12 September, and also attend three online sessions starting 3 August,(rest of the dates to be confirmed)
- You should be willing to actively contribute to a collective learning process and support the experiences of fellow participants.
How will we work together?
Three online sessions, facilitated by the vacuum cleaner will take place over zoom on to begin working together (first one will take place on 3 August). The sessions will focus on sharing strategies and tools developed through working in the context of young people’s mental health.
In person activities will take place in the Festival centre (place in Riga tbc) daily from 7–12 September, approximately between 10:00 and 18:00, with some flexibility depending on the group’s needs and the development of the process. Participants are encouraged to attend as many sessions as possible.
All activities will be conducted in English and Latvian. Participants will be provided with snacks and meals.
How to apply?
Apply by filling in the application form before 8 July 2026: https://forms.gle/knnuyR9p1PsPqLVT8
Places are limited.
Successful applicants will be notified by 15 July 2026.
About the vacuum cleaner
Since 2003 artist and mental health activist the vacuum cleaner, has pioneered a significant body of work exploring the climate crisis, mental health, disability justice, care and access. With roots in activism and radical art, he has created one-man interventions, large-scale actions, performance, installation and film. His work has been shown in galleries, theatres, and hospitals, and has appeared within social movements and in public spaces internationally.