Women offenders unlock creative talents for show at the Together Our Space Gallery

Published: 11 March, 2011
by PETER GRUNER

ARTWORK by female offenders is on show in an exhibition organised by a mental health charity in Finsbury.

Girls Behind Bars: Female Experiences of Justice is currently at the Together Our Space Gallery, on Old Street.  It was officially opened by Baroness Corston on Wednesday.

The work spans a variety of mediums, including video, photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, poetry, audio and installations. Artists include current prisoners at HMP Holloway, women and young offender groups supporting ex-offenders in the community, as well as individual artists, and women supported by Together.

All individuals contributing work were invited to supply a short piece of writing about their experiences.

Through the art and words of the prisoners and ex-offenders taking part the exhibition aims to explore their lives, and what justice has been like, from their point of view.

The show also includes a collaborative project between female prisoners and arts organisation Pharmacopoeia, which was initiated by the British Museum and funded by University College London.

Linda Bryant, head of Together’s diversion and offender management services, said: “We know through our frontline work that diverting women with mental health problems from short-term custody, and into the right support, can reduce re-offending rates in a way that prison doesn’t. But provision of such schemes across the country is currently patchy.”

In her ground-breaking report, Baroness Corston said that there are still far too many women in prison for non-violent offences, and they are much more likely than women outside prison to be mentally ill, substance abusers, or to have experienced child or adult sexual abuse or violence.

• The exhibition runs until June 10. Visit www.together-uk.org