The Koestler Trust - Arts By Offenders

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Prison art and the Koestler Trust

We are the UK's best-known prison arts charity. We have been awarding, exhibiting and selling artworks by offenders, detainees and secure patients for 47 years.

Our awards receive over 5,000 entries a year - inspiring offenders to take part in the arts, work for achievement and transform their lives. Our national exhibition attracts 10,000 visitors - showing the public the talent and potential of offenders and people in secure settings.

We have no endowment or capital - our work depends entirely on donations. More

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Our aims as a charity

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.

What we do

The Koestler Awards attract over 5,000 entries a year from inmates of prisons, young offender institutions, secure hospitals and immigration removal centres across the UK, as well as offenders supervised by probation and youth offending services.

The entries come in 52 artforms, including

creative writing
employment projects
film
graphic design
music
needlework
painting and drawing
photography
sculpture

Experts from these fields volunteer their time to judge the entries. Every entrant is sent a participation certificate, most get feedback on their work, and a quarter win cash prizes up to £100. The awards have a profound impact on offenders self-esteem, leading them to positive new directions in life.

Our specially trained arts mentors support the most talented Koestler award winners to continue their arts activity after release from custody.

The best visual arts entries go to our annual exhibition - the national showcase of arts in criminal justice. For the next 2 years, this will be at London's Southbank Centre. With generous support from The Co-operative, we hold additional exhibitions in Manchester and Edinburgh for Koestler entries from north-west England and Scotland.

Many of the artworks are for sale. The proceeeds are divided between the artist, the Koestler Trust and Victim Support.

We were founded in 1962 by Arthur Koestler, author of the prison novel Darkness at Noon.

We need to raise £175,000 for our core running costs in 2009-10. We have no endowment or capital. We could not survive without the support of businesses, charitable trusts and individual donors. Please support us if you can.

Our base, the Koestler Arts Centre, is the former governor's house at Wormwood Scrubs Prison, West London. We have a staff team of 10, plus volunteers.