Ikon is pleased to announce a new artist residency funded by the Rothschild Foundation and in partnership with HMP Spring Hill, Buckinghamshire.
Part of Ikon’s Art in Prisons programme, the gallery will establish an art studio within the grounds of the prison. The facility will enable a professional artist and group of prisoners to explore creative practice through weekly workshops in an art school-inspired setting. With a focus on the development of artistic expression and technical skills – in painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and textiles – the project complements the prison’s education scheme in supporting health, wellbeing and transition into the workplace.
HMP Spring Hill is a men’s open prison in Buckinghamshire. It is jointly managed with HMP Grendon, a Category B, therapeutic prison, where Ikon has produced an artist residency since 2014. Working with the Rothschild Foundation and HMP Spring Hill, Ikon will invite Buckinghamshire partners to provide creative briefs for the residency. The work produced will form the basis of seasonal exhibitions and events, curated and hosted by the resident artist and prisoners, providing an opportunity for professional engagement with the local community.
“The innovative new partnership with the Rothschild Foundation will provide a unique opportunity for prisoners at Spring Hill to work with a professional artist. Members of the prison community have already started to prepare a space which will be renovated as an art studio, in the same mode as our sister project at HMP Grendon. We look forward to seeing where the next year of partnership with the Rothschild Foundation takes this project, with ambitions to create further links to education providers and businesses in the local Buckinghamshire community.”
Olivia Phelps, Governor, HMP Grendon and Spring Hill
“The Rothschild Foundation is delighted to support this collaborative project through our Buckinghamshire grants programme. Ikon’s groundbreaking work at HMP Grendon has provided an innovative basis to expand their creative practice into HMP Spring Hill. We’re especially excited that Ikon will enable new opportunities for artists – both in and outside prison – and provide a platform for their work. As well as encouraging the creative skills of prisoners, the artist-in-residence will curate and share their work for public display. Working in an open prison affords potential for the arts to reach out into the community and draw in the next generation of audiences.”
Leona Forsyth, Senior Grants Manager, Rothschild Foundation
“Ikon has been running the artist residency at HMP Grendon for 10 years and, in that time, we have staged multiple exhibitions and symposia at the gallery and the prison. Through the residency, the prisoners work with an artist and producer to create, curate, install and write about art. The studio is not simply a place to pass the time of day, or indulge in a new hobby, rather it is geared towards the development of professional practice. A similar ethos is built into the Spring Hill studio, where the prisoners will work on creative briefs set by a professional artist and community-based organisations. For Ikon, this presents an exciting period of learning about working in an open prison and how to adapt our model to best suit this environment.”
Linzi Stauvers, Artistic Director (Education), Ikon
