Plans and projects
We are a charity that is going places!
In 2006, when Tim Robertson arrived as our Chief Executive, we reviewed all our work and launched our first 3-year Development Strategy. This led to a range of new developments, notably:
- Increasing the impact of the Koestler Awards, eg. opening the awards to offenders on community sentences, starting a programme of visits to establishments to present awards in person, and (with the support of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation) piloting our mentoring scheme to support award winners to continue in the arts after release from custody.
- Bringing offender art to new audiences by refreshing the design of our annual exhibition and taking it to more prominent venues (the ICA in 2007, the Royal Festival Hall 2008-10), made possible by sponsorship from Bloomberg and others.
- Overhauling our organisational infrastructure, especially through a business development project funded by the Monument Trust.
In 2009-10, the economic recession means both that funding is harder to come by and that our work is needed more than ever. A struggling economy leads to increased crime and an even faster growth in the prison population; it also leaves offenders, patients and detainees with fewer positive opportunities for learning and employment.
So we are more determined than ever to reach and encourage as many offenders as we can. We have reviewed our spending and made some savings - especially in staffing and overheads - and we are redoubling our efforts to raise money for our work. Our plans remain ambitious, as you will see from this summary of our development plan for 2009 - 10.
Our proposed new developments include:-
- Through our new partnership with The Co-operative, our new exhibitions in Edinburgh and Manchester.
- More work experience placements for current and ex-prisoners in our team at the Koestler Arts Centre.
- A special project for women prisoners to curate our annual national exhibition and learn new skills.
- A fast track for entries by young offenders (who tend to be on shorter sentences and need us to respond more quickly).
- More showcasing of creative writing, music and performance.
- A new post of qualified curator to improve the way we handle and respond to the thousands of artworks sent to us.
- A new project to recruit and train Koestler ambassadors to promote offender art in prisons and community settings.
- A social enterprise with ex-offenders helping develop sales of artworks and merchandise.
- A new Friends Scheme for our supporters.
We need to raise at least £175,000 to achieve these goals. Please help us if you can - use the Donate Now button at the top of the page.
For more information about our plans and projects, contact our Chief Executive Tim Robertson trobertson@koestlertrust.org.uk
|
