Thursday 27 September 2012

Art Helps Voices to be Heard









 Conversations - HM Prison Stafford, John Weightman MBE 
 Highly Commended Award for Watercolour
 (Source: The Koestler Trust website)


Art, regardless of our background and life experience allows us to access something deeper, as Thomas Merton once said “art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”. The work of The Koestler Trust is an example of an organisation working with prisoners and detainees, enabling individuals to express themselves creatively.
A recent article by The Guardian details Sarah Lucas’s invitation by The Koestler Trust to curate an exhibition which attracted “between 4000-5000 entries” of prisoner’s art. The exhibition opened on 20th September at London’s Royal Festival Hall. The  Trust states its aims to be the following:

  • To help offenders, secure patients and detainees lead more positive lives by motivating them to participate and achieve in the arts.
  • To increase public awareness and understanding of arts by offenders, secure patients & detainees.
  • To be a dynamic, responsive organisation which achieves excellent quality and value for money.”
 (The Koestler Trust website,http://www.koestlertrust.org.uk, accessed 25th Sept, 2012)

Let us examine the Trust’s first aim, encouraging participation in the arts, the Lucas curated exhibition is a high profile culmination of the achievements of creative expression of prisoner’s within the UK today. Koestler has been doing this for fifty years and Kazuri would like to take the opportunity to congratulate them on this achievement.
The trust’s second objective is perhaps the most important, raising awareness. By making itself accessible, to the potential service user and those outside the criminal justice system alike; stating its objectives clearly, so the value of the Trust and specifically art used as a tool within the context of prisoner rehabilitation, the value can be recognised by all.

Art accesses something in all of us, allowing us to understand and be understood. Arthur Koestler’s experiences as a prisoner in the Spanish Civil war motivated him to set up the trust in order to encourage prisoners to express themselves, learn new skills and channel energy that might be otherwise expended in other potentially damaging ways, for both the individual and also, society.

Thirdly, evidence to support the last objective of the Trust is crucial to ensure the longevity and the continuation of the function that the organisation performs.
High profile exhibitions like the Lucas curated event mentioned above keep the creative endeavours of participants in the public eye, raise money from sales of art, garner interest in the pieces exhibited and reciprocally, raise the profile of participants and instil a sense of self worth. 

Interest in participating in the Trust’s awards has risen dramatically since 2007, 4084 entries compared to 7674 in 2011. A full breakdown of the statistical data can be accessed here:

Finally, arts schemes, awards and exhibitions such as those run by The Koestler Trust help to reduce re-offending rates. A report commissioned by the Arts Alliance in 2011 states that “arts cut re-offending rates by up to 50%” (http://www.artlyst.com/articles/art-cuts-reoffending-rate-by-50-states-uk-report). 
In conclusion, the value of arts to the individual and to society can be expressed tangibly in these austere times from a monetary perspective. Re-offending costs society “£150,000 for each offender” (ibid link above). Organisations like Koestler and others represent a cost effective way of tackling root causes and engaging with disenfranchised, alienated people on an often long, lonely path. Lets support them, rather than cutting off arteries to funding.

Details of the exhibition can be found here:

Additionally, the South Bank Centre is holding a special event on Sunday 21st October to mark fifty years of the Trust’s work, details here:


Link to The Guardian’s article:





The Walls Have Ears - HM Prison Wayland, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation Silver Award for Mixed Media.









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