The Koestler Trust’s Catching Dreams: Art by offenders

When looking for an interesting art exhibition to visit, this one immediately caught my eye: modern prisoners given the platform to present their art works to the public eye. I was intrigued, so decided to travel the not so long journey to the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, to see this extraordinary presentation for myself.

The Catching Dreams exhibition is hosted annually and has been running for seven years. The exhibition itself is a demonstration of art, poetry and prose created by prisoners from around the UK. This year seven ex-offenders who have completed a mentoring programme with the Koestler Trust curate the exhibition. Each judge chose a small selection of work from the more than 8,000 entries submitted this year. The exhibition hall is filled with the artwork, most named, dated and bearing the location in which the prisoner is held, although some remain completely anonymous.

  At the end of the exhibition, a small room labelled ‘Lights Out’ stood solitary with a black box in the corner of a light room. We are told that, ‘roughly 232 people entering and leaving secure settings every day. During this exhibition, that’s one person every 2 minutes and 32 seconds.’ The interior of the room is covered in a selection of poetry. Much to my surprise, the room suddenly turned dark, words that hadn’t been seen before became illuminated on the now black walls.

For me, the most emotionally riveting pieces were those created by the psychiatric patients. The feelings expressed through the work were truly touching, and in my opinion were giving the prisoners a chance to express themselves without words. Another personal favourite of mine was the painting entitled ‘The Iron Lady’ from HM Prison Blantyre House where each square is a slightly different tone. It won the Bronze Award for Portraits.

I would highly recommend visiting this exhibition whilst out in London, as it is both interesting and insightful, and the work of the Koestler Trust in rehabilitating offenders through art is admirable.

If you are a fan of modern art, I also recommend visiting the Schizophrenogenesis Exhibition in the Paul Stolper Gallery on Museum Street. Created by Damien Hirst, it is a showcase of the medicine taken by schizophrenic sufferers.