Prison art and the Koestler Trust
They are the UK’s best-known prison arts charity. They award, exhibit and sell artworks by offenders, detainees and high security patients.
The Koestler Trust’s aims are:
- to help offenders lead more positive lives by motivating them to participate in the creative arts;
- to demonstrate the power of arts activity in the criminal justice system.
The Koestler Awards attract around 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.
Futures Unlocked
For many of the inmates a new life is wanted on the outside of a prison. They want to start again, make a new life for themselves and their families and put something back into community.
The reality is that however positive they are inside, the chances of living a crime-free life can be difficult.
The challenges are immense. Friends, family, society are expecting them to fail.
We have a different approach as we want them to succeed in life, staying crime free, drug free, and living a life to be proud of.