2020 Koestler Awards

• An update on our UK exhibition at Southbank Centre

  UPDATED 24 JULY 2020

  Koestler Arts and Southbank Centre have been working hard to ensure that we still reflect the voices of prisoners from across the UK this autumn. We know it’s more important than ever to showcase our entrants this year, even though it will need to be very different. We are now working to produce a powerful installation across the outdoors spaces of the Southbank Centre. More info on this soon.

  We’re postponing our Camille Walala curation partnership till September 2021 – when we’ll be back in our large space in the Royal Festival Hall, with all our family days, exhibition hosts, events, tours and pop-up shop.

  Our Yorkshire and North West shows in early 2021 are still planned to go ahead, and a selection of 2020 entries will also be exhibited at the National Justice Museum, Nottingham in early 2021.

The deadline for the 2020 Koestler Awards for arts in criminal justice settings has now passed.

This year’s Themed Category is window. We invited our entrants to have a go at producing a poem, drawing, painting, song or any other Koestler Artform using the word window, as a theme.

We know the importance of our work to those who are in the criminal justice system, particularly those who may be more isolated than usual, due to specific challenges our prisons and other secure settings are facing.

We have been delighted to see that many entrants have been able to send their work to us by the revised deadline of 7 July and will do our utmost to respond to submissions in the usual ways (feedback, awards, certificates, sales, exhibitions).