Koestler Arts Award Winners at Pine View Inpatient Unit

We are delighted to announce that we have three different award winners from our forensic units Pine View and the Humber Centre. Patients from these services have won certificates for their artwork from the prestigious Koestler awards.

The Koestler Awards for arts in criminal justice started in 1962. Thousands of people each year in custody and in the community share their creative work by taking part. The Koestler Awards provide feedback and encouragement to entrants of all abilities in visual art, design, writing and music.

There were over 8,100 different creative entries across over 52 categories and 2,357 awards were handed out including for 10 pieces from our three entrants. Koestler held an exhibition called ‘IN CASE OF EMERGENCY’, which they say is ‘An exhibition that showcases the artistic range and talent of people in criminal justice settings, curated by TS Eliot Prize-winning poet Joelle Taylor.’ The exhibition was held at the Southbank Centre in London between November 2^nd – December 17^th and displayed nearly 200 pieces of the artwork submitted. This included one piece called ‘Silence of the Wild Wind’ which was submitted by one of our winners at  the Trust, this piece can be seen below.

Michele Moran, Chief Executive Officer and Paula Phillips, Forensic Services General Manager were both in attendance alongside staff at Pine View to hand the awards out to two of our successful entrants.  Michele and Paula wanted to wish all the entrants a heartfelt congratulations for this amazing accomplishment, highlights the skills and abilities of our patients supported within the Trust!

Some of the other award-winning works titled; ‘Coconut Rocks,’ ‘Hull, the Whaling Port,’ ‘Mermaid & Fish,’ ’To Hull and Back,’ and ‘The Glens of Scotland,’ won awards which can is listed here:

• The Bronze award for painting -  Hull, The Whaling Port

• Silver award for painting – Coconut Rocks

• Gold award for Mixed media – Mermaid and fish

See some of the glowing feedback here:

• “Coconut Rocks” was judged by Jenny Eclair, a stand-up comedian and writer as well as by Charlotte Cullinan and Jeanine Richards, who are a collaborative artist duo. The judges agreed that the painting was very successful in it’s application of ‘light source and atmosphere.’

• “Hull, the Whaling Port” also received feedback from Jenny Eclair, Charlotte Cullinan and Jeanine Richards. They stated that they found the painting to be very well constructed with full of “expression” and “dynamism”!

• “Mermaid & Fish” was judged by Kim Coleman, a British artist who works primarily with photography, light, expanded moving image, and installation. It was also judged by Shama Khanna who is a curator, writer, and educator from London. Kim Coleman called it a ‘beautiful and arresting painting”. She also said, “I loved the colours you used in your painted sections, pale blue and deep burgundy were unexpected and wonderful.”

• “To Hull and Back” was judged by Koestler Arts staff and volunteers. The feedback provided indicated that they approved of how the colours worked together to create “a rather dreamlike atmosphere “in addition to how well drawn the faces were with only a few strong lines. They also noted the “freedom in much of the brushwork and the frank bold statement of place”.

• “The Glens of Scotland” was also judged by Koestler Arts staff and volunteers. They stated that the landscape is very pared back and abstracted but noted you can “feel all the moodiness and brooding atmosphere of the glens”. They continued by saying that they hoped the entrant would continue to paint and experiment.

We are looking forward to the artwork being returned hopefully by April 2024 and on display in the Humber Centre with their certificates, well done to all the winners!

Read more about the Koestler exhibition

'Silence of the Wild Wind' below: