Loading...
‘I feel free when I’m planning, preparing. Sketching and painting… free to explore my inner imagination and escape from the reality of prison life.’
Watts Gallery Trust has been working in a much-valued partnership between the closed female training prison HMP Send and the Michael Varah Memorial Fund (MVMF) since 2008, facilitating weekly creative studio time and Artist Tutors to guide and teach the participants.
This project sits within the Watts Gallery’s Art for All Community Programme, which seeks to provide opportunities for those living locally who may not otherwise engage with the Gallery, arts and heritage. Within our Community Programme, we focus on using our heritage and collection as a tool to bring people together, support improved well-being and nurture creative skills and ways of making for our local community.
Recent highlights with the Watts group at HMP Send:
Products with the artists’ work, such as postcards, calendars and seasonal cards are sold in the Watts Gallery shop through the Michael Varah Memorial Fund.
For more information about the Community Programme, contact Stephanie O’Neill-Winbow, Learning Curator: Family & Community Projects at stephanie.onw@wattsgallery.org.uk
Tenby boats, 'Our Time' Artist
The conversations within the workshops are wide ranging; they spark so much creativity and often influence our subject matter. There’s a great deal of happy laughter as we paint and draw. - Art for All Community Learning Programme participant from HMP Send
The conversations within the workshops are wide ranging; they spark so much creativity and often influence our subject matter. There’s a great deal of happy laughter as we paint and draw.
- Art for All Community Learning Programme participant from HMP Send
Tuscany, 'Our Time' Artist
‘From its foundations, this project has been built on Watts Gallery Trusts’ vision of Art For All By All, led by our 19th century founding artists’ commitments to nurture the development of talent and support social enterprise. It captures the deep belief held by both GF and Mary Watts, that art and creativity can inspire and support fruitful rehabilitation and regeneration within communities.’ - Sarah Jarvis – Head of Engagement at the Watts Gallery
‘From its foundations, this project has been built on Watts Gallery Trusts’ vision of Art For All By All, led by our 19th century founding artists’ commitments to nurture the development of talent and support social enterprise. It captures the deep belief held by both GF and Mary Watts, that art and creativity can inspire and support fruitful rehabilitation and regeneration within communities.’
- Sarah Jarvis – Head of Engagement at the Watts Gallery
I am gradually forming my own artistic style and preference, where texture and two-dimensional work play a larger part. I find that I find this more satisfying. The Watts group has given me a doorway to experiment: the challenge and thrill of trying something new!
Flying high, 'Our Time' Artist
The Watts Gallery Studio Workshop Programme at HMP Send is inclusive, providing a unique space for absolute beginners as well as women who have been in the group for longer to be creative and to learn new skills. The social impact of this programme is immense: women serving often a long custodial sentence gain a sense of purpose, wellbeing, and calm through attending the sessions – and they make award-winning art.
For the women in HMP Send, being Watts Gallery Artists is their identity and they are proud and grateful to be part of this amazing opportunity. The women say that these sessions are a lifeline, time for them to create, explore and express themselves through their art. A calendar of exhibition opportunities motivates them: preparing for the 'Art for All' exhibition makes them connect with G F and Mary Watts' work and ethos. My job is to get the women to make their very best work. Part of the rehabilitation process is providing this group with the skills that they will need when they leave. Since Lockdown, teaching has been through workbooks I have researched and designed for the group. Without the support of the Michael Varah Memorial Fund and Watts Gallery – who have been taking these workbooks and materials to the prison – there would be no art. Art is what keeps these women motivated, positive and purposeful during these challenging times. - Sophie Artemis – Art for All Community Learning Programme artist at HMP Send since 2015
For the women in HMP Send, being Watts Gallery Artists is their identity and they are proud and grateful to be part of this amazing opportunity. The women say that these sessions are a lifeline, time for them to create, explore and express themselves through their art. A calendar of exhibition opportunities motivates them: preparing for the 'Art for All' exhibition makes them connect with G F and Mary Watts' work and ethos. My job is to get the women to make their very best work. Part of the rehabilitation process is providing this group with the skills that they will need when they leave. Since Lockdown, teaching has been through workbooks I have researched and designed for the group. Without the support of the Michael Varah Memorial Fund and Watts Gallery – who have been taking these workbooks and materials to the prison – there would be no art. Art is what keeps these women motivated, positive and purposeful during these challenging times.
- Sophie Artemis – Art for All Community Learning Programme artist at HMP Send since 2015