On 30 September 2025, at Manchester Museum, African Objects: Psychoactives, Spirituality & Mental Health, presented new artworks at a special event marking the culmination of a six-week project led by transdisciplinary artist Divine Southgate-Smith, created in collaboration with members of Black and African-Caribbean communities.
Curated by Southgate-Smith, the project’s lead artist, this event was a collaborative and poetic response to objects chosen from Manchester Museum’s Living Cultures collection exploring their psychological and societal implications within the African diaspora.
Contextual material and a sculptural time capsule, called Grammar in the Void, made by Southgate-Smith was displayed in juxtaposition to the Museum objects.
Inspired by parables and traditional griot storytelling, original poetry devised by project participants was performed live and available in the form of a beautiful, limited edition artist book, which you can read just below.
There was a music performance from a Kora player and a collective discussion, reflecting on project themes between the lead artist and project collaborators with an opportunity for audience interaction.
Rooted in experiences of recovery and mental health, this event offered new ways of understanding African objects and their contemporary cultural use; not as static relics, but as living tools for reflection and transformation.
An event for Portraits of Recovery’s Recoverist Month: Sept 2025 – placing lived experience at the heart of an annual, month-long arts programme that re-writes narratives on substance use and recovery.
About the artist
Divine Southgate-Smith (b. 1995, Lome, Togo) is a British trans-disciplinary artist. Her work often references and questions articulations of black, queer, and female experience. Her approach to artmaking is medium non-specific, allowing her to explore complex narratives through various mediums and disciplines.
Find out more here
Our generous funders
MYRIAD
MYRIAD supports the delivery of culturally competent, community-based mental health and wellbeing support for global majority communities. This project is part of MYRIAD Test & Learn within the Greater Manchester Creative Health Place Partnership.
Greater Manchester’s Creative Health Place Partnership is part of Live Well; GM’s movement for community-led health and well-being, supporting residents to live well, by creating, community-led approaches with culture and creativity at their heart.
