‘A powerful alternative to remaining stuck’: Mak-Mind: Reflections exhibit comes to Maggie’s Forth Valley

The exhibition focuses on the results and stories from a recent artistic workshop that women living with metastatic cancer took part in.

It invited guests to think about how creativity, personal meaning, and shared experience can shape how we understand life with cancer.

Renate Kriegler Edwards, the artist, designer, and maker behind Mak-Mind, designed the workshops as a way for people to uncover how making something physical can help them discover and express what matters to them.

This exhibition brings Renate’s story full circle. She received support from Yvonne McIntosh at Maggie’s in Edinburgh while going through cancer treatment in 2017 and 2018.

While she was developing Mak-Mind as part of her Masters degree, Renate searched for Yvonne to find out she was now the head of Maggie’s Forth Valley.

Upon meeting once again, the pair’s collaboration brought Renate back to Maggie’s with her exhibition.

The workshops, which intertwine symbolic jewellery making, personal reflection, and creative visioning, originally began with an aim to help individuals move forward after a personal crisis. Those taking part would set a SMART goal - one which is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound - and seal their intention into a handmade pendant to create a physical reminder of the aims they had for themselves.

However, during Renate’s MA in Applied Arts and Social Practice at Queen Margaret University she altered how group workshops functioned by adding in peer support. Participants could still make jewellery and talk about their personal goals, but they could also share their experiences, support one another and learn from each other.

The latest workshop, which is featured in the exhibition, was commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation through the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2026 Regional Participatory Arts Fund. It came after Yvonne invited Renate to work with women living with metastatic cancer. Despite entering a space where the participant’s circumstances differed from her own experience as a cancer survivor, Renate felt welcomed, appreciated, and humbled by the women’s resilience.

Renate said: “Mak-Mind, in essence, is reflection – on ‘what the hell just happened’, who you are now, what you want now, where you want to go, what you need to move forward, and what first steps to take. This reflection - especially in a peer-support and creative setting - may offer a powerful alternative to remaining stuck and repeating unhelpful thoughts in isolation.

“Exhibiting aspects of the project furthermore invites members of the public, participants’ personal support networks, clinicians and policy makers to reflect more deeply on a cancer patient’s experience, and perhaps their own influence on this.”

Yvonne said: “Being involved in the Mak-Mind workshop had meaningful value for me as well as the participants. It gave me the time to process my own understanding of hopes and wishes, and to reflect on the things that matter personally to an individual. These lay the foundations for the support we provide at Maggie’s.”

Mak-Mind: Reflections is on display at Maggie’s Forth Valley until Friday, November 6. It will be open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and visitors are welcome to drop in with no prior booking required.