|
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. |