Funded 2009 to 2012
Based in Surrey
Watts Gallery’s ‘Big Issues’ project offers artist-led workshops for women prisoners at HMP Send and HMP Bronzefield, young people from Surrey Youth Justice Service and two Surrey based art groups: The Cellar and Street Level Arts, which include adults living in temporary accommodation, rough sleepers, reformed drug and alcohol users and those with mental health problems.
Within this programme, since 2009 our Fund has provided annual grants to support the MVMF Artist in Residence at HMP Send, Sandy Curry, and we are committed to continue this to at least 2013. The wide ranging programme at Send includes workshops for the women prisoners, their families, young people attending the New Leaf project, open studio sessions, master classes and themed workshop programmes. In 2010, over 50 women and over 30 young people participated in the programme.
The MVMF has worked actively with Watts Gallery to explore other ways to widen the project. With growing recognition of the value of art provision in supporting offenders’ self-development towards resettlement, there is a natural synergy between the Watts Gallery ‘Art for All’ programme and the aims of our charity. The MVMF workshops therapeutically allow the women prisoners – who now call themselves ‘Sisters in Art’ – to explore difficult feelings and to discover talents they never knew they had. We are also actively promoting this collaboration outside the prison walls. At our charity fundraising balls, artwork from HMP Send artists was exhibited, and for three consecutive years the women artists have produced imaginative artwork for our charity Christmas cards. Their designs for Christmas 2011 are currently on sale, with all profits going into our funding of this project.
