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“BREAKING OUT” ART EXHIBITION
Art-Alive Launched the exhibition of the year on the 16th September 2008 at Unit 6A, Clapham North Arts Centre, 26-32 Voltaire Rd, London SW4 6DH... We are getting ready for our annual exhibition in 2010. As we speak projects are being done in one of the Approved Premises in Camberwell.
Art Alive Arts Trust is proud to have proclaimed an exhibition of various works of art / installation created across a wide spectrum of media by young offenders, ex-offenders and those at risk of offending including tutors work
A private view took place from 6.30pm to 9.00pm on 16th September 2008; the following day was the Main Viewing which ran from the 17th September to the 22nd September 2008 from 10.00am to 6.00pm daily.
Art Alive Arts Trust is a registered charity that has been at the forefront of community work with offenders, ex-offenders and people on the outer fringes of society. In the past and up until the present time the trust has worked with prisons in London, the community and the London Probation Service.
This exhibition gave an opportunity for members of the public, civil servants, third sector workers and members of various institutions to see what our beneficiaries are capable of creatively. There were numerous creative works that span various media on display. Some of these works were available for sale with the proceeds going direct to the creator of the work – this therefore marked the beginning of financial independence for many of our clients!!
Our aim is to bring together, through the creative process of art, different excluded communities in London, to improve their relationships, to involve children and adults in a practical, socially responsible way, to promote diversity of cultural differences in Britain’s multi-ethnic society, to encourage possibilities of employment for artists and volunteers and to involve as many different communities as possible, including corporate organisations, participating in Unity through Art. We expect the business community to support us benefiting from contact with and participation in community life, ultimately improving life in the Capital, and to integrate wealth into benefits for all as a responsible way of manifesting success and profit.
Please come and support our work and immerse yourself in hitherto unseen works of art that are totally original, breathtaking and unique!!
Pathfinder project gets underway
After promoting our art courses to London Probation staff and a successful sign up at Southwark Probation Service’s HQ, Art Alive welcomed the first influx of new beneficiaries to our centre.
The afternoon gave everyone the chance to discuss artistic aspirations, opportunities in store and a hands-on taster of two courses on offer - mosaic design and furniture design.
Beneficiaries helped to complete the mosaic that was started by Probation staff at the Model Borough Market the previous month.
Then Peter Ellis, our furniture design tutor took everyone on a tour of the carpentry workshop and described his 12-week programme.
Strengthening Links
After being selected as one of the pilot organisations for London Probation’s Model Borough Pathfinder Project Art Alive were invited to their ‘Strengthening Links’ event held on Friday 15th February at the Oval Conference Centre at the Oval Cricket Ground.
The all-day conference was an opportunity for London Probation staff and voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations to discuss ways of working together to improve the probation service in Lambeth and Southwark.
Art Alive were fortunate to have the only stall at the event so our leaflets, business cards and artwork generated a lot of interest from probation and VCS staff.
We even sold one of our screenprints to Lynne from CLINKS. Nice one Lynne.
Model Borough Market
In March we received another invite from London Probation to attend their Model Borough Market at the Abbey Centre in Westminster. Joined by one of our beneficiaries, Dickson, Art Alive put on another impressive exhibition on the stage of the main hall. The other voluntary and community sector and London Probation project stallholders created a huge buzz throughout the morning.
The brief for stallholders was to be interactive as possible. Sylvia Edwards, our mosaics tutor, came up with a brilliant idea - a mosaic that everyone could contribute to.
Her design was based on London Probation’s purple and white logo and after an initial reluctance, most attendees and stallholders added a few, in some cases a lot of, tiles.
Meanwhile Dickson attracted a lot of attention as he finished off one of his paintings amongst the rest of our exhibition.
It was a powerful statement having Dickson on the Art Alive stall as he represents the work we are doing in the community so well.
Annual report
In 2009 Art Alive Arts Trust started to set down roots in Lambeth after we moved to our new premises in Clapham, South London. It was a year of fundraising, and many thanks to the generous donation of Lady Edwina Grosvenor who saw it needed to help in keeping Art Alive through the hard recession of 2009. Hard work and some small but significant successes. Find out more about a year in the life of Art Alive - download our annual report.
Art Alive on the beeb
On 20 February 2006, few years ago Art Alive appeared on BBC One’s Inside Out programme
and a segment of the programme looked at prison art. Art Alive beneficiary, Richard Ponniah and our very own Lanre Olagoke were interviewed. A prison art tutor based at Holloway prison and a collector of prison art also contributed to the programme.
View ‘Inside Out’ BBC1
Art Alive goes to the ICA
Artistic Director, Lanre Olagoke, meets Dorothy Salmon at the launch of
the Koestler Trust’s ‘Insider Art’ exhibition, at the Institute of
Contemporary Art on 11 July 2007. Dorothy, now retired, advised Lanre at
the early stages of Art Alive when she was Director of the Koestler
Trust.
The event was a great networking opportunity - Lanre enthused about the work of Art Alive with, amongst others, the new trustees of the Koestler Trust and ICA Artistic Director Ekow Eshun.
The great, the good and everyone else in between rubbed shoulders at the
packed launch. Lanre met Chris Momenang, a Koestler Award winner whose
work was hanging in the main exhibition hall. Chris has experienced life
on the street and will soon be using our centre once opened again.
Promoting Art Alive
We now have a new promotional leaflet which includes the new Art Alive logo, tells you all about our work, has a brief history of the trust and an all-important donation form.
Download your copy here and don’t forget to complete the Gift Aid declaration!
Courses for young people
Art Alive will be running a variety of art-based courses for 14 to 19
year olds at all different boroughs in London.
Download this
attachment for more information or contact the centre now
Spring 2010
We are hoping to move from Clapham North Arts
Centre in South London soon. We are very happy to have a base in south London, because it brings us closer to many of our partners
such as HMP Brixton, HMP Wandsworth and a number of local schools. From a
practical and strategic point of view it’s a great move for the trust.
We will be launching the new centre in Spring. Watch this space for details.
Media buzz
In February 2006 Art Alive Arts Trust were featured on the BBC’s ‘Inside Out’. They wanted to find out more about the groundbreaking work the trust is doing in London’s prisons. One of our talented artists, Richard, spoke about his paintings and the support he has received from the trust. The Trust’s co-ordinator, Lanre Olagoke gave the low down on the work of the Trust and its role in the rehabilitation process.
More recently The Voice Newspaper published an article on 20 November 2009 about the issues offenders face on release; and focussed on Femi, a recovering drug and alcohol addict, who has been transformed by the power of art. He now works as volunteer for AAAT at our Bounds Green studio and is positive that the ties he developed with the Trust inside have become stronger on his release, on the outside.
He told The Voice: ‘I lost my family through drugs. I thought about my options, the difficulties of getting work, had it not been for the artistic skills the Trust helped me develop inside prison, the future would be very bleak’.
New volunteer
JG was recently released from HMP Wormwood Scrubs He is now visiting the centre every Thursday, learning skills in woodwork and furniture making whilst pursuing his printing and painting career. Quote?
Playing our part
The Trust has also embarked on a new project called ‘Part 2 Play’; quarterly meetings aimed at past and present Trust clients. Our objective is to give our clients the opportunity to voice their concerns about accommodation, employment and training - the list is not exhaustive.
Our clients are also given the opportunity to relate their experiences since release. The meetings will also serve as an open forum and will allow one to one and group sessions between the Trusts’ human resources and workers and our clients. The first session took place at Camden Town on Saturday 25 November 2006 and was branded a success by all those present.
Funding
Art Alive are now working with business and design solutions company I-See Consultancy Ltd. They supported the publication of our new website in December 2006 and are working on several funding applications and a business plan to bolster our current fundraising drive. 2010 is looking like a good year for AAAT! More news soon.