The Teddy Bear Cabinet: Please Mind the Gap is an arts and wellbeing project, which uses photography to communicate the importance of early attachment in infant mental health.

Please Mind the Gap responds to the Parent-Infant Foundation's pledge to raise awareness of a 'baby blind spot' in the UK's mental health provision by highlighting the positive impact of nurturing before birth and during the early years of life.

The project took place as an on-board art exhibition hosted on the Tyne and Wear Metro, in the form of carriage cards during Infant Mental Health Week (IMHAW) 12-18 June 2023. The artworks were positioned facing the buggy area on the carriages, in easy view for parents and carers on the trains.

This project uses the curation of visual art on public transport to engage a diverse parental demographic with evolutionary science behind infant mental health, with a view of contributing positively to the lives of new mothers, carers, infants, and families. The carriage cards feature handcrafted teddy bears made from baby clothes, alongside quotes from a range of experts in the fields of developmental psychology and parenting research.

This project is led by Dr Christina Kolaiti Senior Lecturer in Photography at York St John University in collaboration with The Parent-Infant Foundation, The Association of Chid Psychotherapists, The Institute of Child Psychology and has also invited contributions from award winning blogs and authors such as Tracy Gillett @RaisedGood, Dr Greer Kirshenbaum @NurtureNeuroscienceParenting and Tiffany Belanger @Cosleepy.

The project has been supported by York St John University's Quality Research and Institute for Social Justice Funding.