Koestler Arts

Koestler Arts is the UK's leading prison arts charity with a mission to inspire participation in the arts by people in prisons and beyond, and to build public recognition of their creative work, fostering communities that support rehabilitation.

We make this happen through:

• Participation: We motivate and support people in custody and on community sentences, including probation, to participate in the arts, ensuring that the educational, social and well-being benefits of the arts are accessible to all.
• Showcasing: We share this creativity with communities across the UK through innovative public programmes, enabling everyone to experience this powerful work and these hidden stories of change.

Since 1962, our annual Koestler Awards - the only arts competition available to everyone in secure settings and community sentences - have played a unique role in motivating prisoners, secure hospital patients and immigration detainees across the UK to take part in the arts.

The public has few opportunities to learn about the positive work inside prisons and other of these settings — to see the individuals behind the statistics. This increases polarisation and makes successful resettlement even more challenging. Through exhibitions, events, publications and online showcasing, Koestler Arts offers a chance to experience the talents and creativity of people within, and with lived experience of, the criminal justice system. These instances have the potential to open up conversations, helping to build communities that support rehabilitation.

Open House

The Koestler Arts Centre is where the charity receives thousands of art submissions in 53 different artform categories every year, where professionals from the art world attend to provide feedback and awards to the best pieces, and where guest curators come to draw inspiration and come up with exciting and innovative exhibitions.

Not normally open to the public, on 20th September as part of the Open House Festival, the Koestler Arts Centre will welcome visitors to see samples of the 2025 submissions to the Koestler Awards, so they can experience the talent and ingenuity of people in prisons and other secure settings. In addition, visitors will have the opportunity to see a small exhibition of paintings by Peter Cameron, exhibited together for the first time. Peter Cameron is a successful artist with lived experience of prison, who first gained recognition for his artworks through being exhibited in Koestler Art exhibitions and winning several awards. His inspiring story – soon to be published in ‘Peter Cameron: Artistic Convictions’ by David Wootton – demonstrates the power of art to transform lives within and beyond the criminal justice system.

Our Building

Since 1999, Koestler Arts has been situated just outside HMP Wormwood Scrubs, a Category B prison. First located inside the former Governor’s house, a 3-storey Victorian building, in 2024 the Koestler Arts office moved next door to its bespoke new premises: the Koestler Arts Centre.

Built from 24 recycled shipping containers over two storeys, the open-plan, modular nature of the building lends itself to multi-use purposes. It was designed by Container City, an award-winning construction service which has been nationally commended for the economical way in which it recycles industrial products. The building contains multi-purpose gallery and workshop spaces in which our art team and dedicated volunteers unpack, sort and exhibit the many thousands of artworks which we receive by post throughout the yearly Awards cycle.

These tailor-made facilities are already changing the way the charity works, allowing it to be more inclusive and welcoming for its volunteers and visitors, more collaborative for its staff, and to gain a greater public-facing presence.