The newsletter for arts organisations working in criminal justice.
In this month's issue...
- National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance news
- Arts in criminal justice news and publications
- Events and training
- Resources and opportunities
NCJAA Bursary Scheme 2023 Deadline application approaching
Apply by 14:00, Monday 3 July 2023
Applications will remain open for the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) 2023 bursary scheme until 14:00, Monday 3 July. The NCJAA bursary scheme is supported by Arts Council England and awards small bursaries (up to £250) to support the professional development needs of creatives with protected characteristics or with lived or felt experience of the criminal justice system. Find out more via our website.
State of the sector research
2023 survey is now live! Respond by Monday 7 August
We are calling on all arts specialist individuals and organisations working in criminal justice to complete the 2023 State of the sector survey. This is your chance to tell us about the challenges your organisation has faced over the last year and help us influence key decision makers on your behalf and ensure that our support meets your needs. We regularly meet with HM Prison and Probation Service and the Ministry of Justice to speak up on behalf of artists and arts organisations in the criminal justice voluntary sector, but we need up-to-date evidence to do this effectively. That is why we are asking you to complete the survey. Your anonymised responses will contribute to a report highlighting the changes and challenges the voluntary sector, and its service users, are experiencing and how organisations are adapting.
As part of this year’s State of the sector research, the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance (NCJAA) have helped shape the survey to provide opportunity for individuals and organisations in the arts and criminal justice sector to have their voices heard. Survey findings will be reported on in the coming months with plans to create a mini-report focussing specifically on the input from arts sector professionals both as independent artists and practitioners, and staff or trustee representatives of organisations in our network. Read Clinks’ blog on why your responses are so crucial here and complete the survey here today!
Social prescribing in the criminal justice system – building the evidence base
Clinks has published a blog on the development and growth of social prescribing across HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) through access to evidence-based information and support. Social prescribing is an approach that connects people with social, emotional or practical needs to activities, groups and services in their community to improve their health and wellbeing. It is being used more and more in healthcare settings, but how can it be better utilised in the criminal justice system? This blog looks at the evidence for social prescribing, the approach being taken to support its growth across prisons and probation and how you can get involved. Read the blog here.
The Lyrics, The Music and The Money! Music Industry TV series for Prisoners
In six up-beat 30-minute episodes, Dr Jacs and Megg Nicol navigate the rollercoaster ride that is today’s music industry. Telling it like it is, with no holds barred, they tackle questions like; how do you get your music heard? Is it possible to make money in the process? What does it take to break a new band? How do you push through the gate-keepers defences to “where the power lies”? As Dr. Jacs says “Lest we forget, today’s prisoners are tomorrow’s neighbours! There are some great initiatives that support music as an art form, but this TV series is a world first in prison to offer advice and knowledge about the “business” itself and the importance of copyright.” Read more online.
Between the Bars: A film by Ed Owles and Steph Beeston, produced by Vox Holloway Community Choir with support from Arts Council England and UK Prison Reform Trust
Between the Bars traces the journey of North London choir, Vox Holloway, as its members tackle a new oratorio, The Sun Does Shine, by Harvey Brough with libretto by Justin Butcher. Essentially the film is about an ordinary choir creating extraordinary music – music that is powerful, disconcerting and uplifting. It is based on the true story of Anthony Ray Hinton, an innocent man, who spent 30 years on Death Row in Alabama before his release in 2015, and it is possibly the most challenging and inspiring project that the choir has undertaken. The film explores how the choir met these challenges, including by reaching out to prisoners themselves. For two years, as the project evolved, choir members wrote to prisoners in the UK, many of whom spoke about the role music plays in helping them cope with long-term and, in some cases, indeterminate sentences. The insights will be of interest to artists and choirs involved in similar creative work. But the film also touches on wider questions posed when art tackles complex social issues such as capital punishment, racism, and long-term imprisonment, and speaks to the role of the arts in raising awareness and helping to make change happen. Watch online.
Arts in criminal justice organisation co-founders honoured with OBEs
Congratulations to the two co-founders of Prison Reading Groups (part of the charity Give a Book), Sarah Turvey and Jenny Hartley who have been awarded OBEs for services to prisoners. Prison Reading Groups has been going for nearly 25 years, beginning in 1999 with just two reading groups. In 2023, they now have 60 groups running in 51 prisons and support several family reading initiatives such as Family Days, Storybook Dads and Raising Readers; reaching hundreds of people every year. Sarah and Jenny are responsible for incredible work and are a credit to the arts in criminal justice sector.
Performing Recovery - Issue 3
Issue 3 of the Performing Recovery magazine, showcased this month at Liverpool Hope University’s Addiction-Recovery Arts Futures Conference, includes news, poetry, art and “The Directory” about artists in addiction recovery. In this issue Chris De Banks talks about the UK's only record label dedicated to artists in recovery; Adriana Marchione discusses their film The Creative High, an award-winning documentary that looks at the lives of nine artists in recovery, and much more. Read online.
HMPPS Regional Third Sector Stakeholder Event
Newcastle, 6 July | free
Join Clinks and HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Third Sector Partnerships and Programmes Team to gather feedback on the organisation-wide Third Sector Partnership Approach at this final event of the series. The Third Sector Partnership Approach provides a guiding set of principles to strengthen and maximise Ministry of Justice and HMPPS engagement with the Third Sector to highlight and raise the profile of the valuable services the Third Sector provides across England and Wales. These events will also provide an opportunity to engage with regional HMPPS colleagues and hear about the upcoming Innovation Grants programme. Book your place here.
Fallen Angels Dance Theatre with New Note Orchestra
7 July | Brighton | from £9
Award-Winning recovery arts organisations Fallen Angels Dance Theatre and New Note Orchestra come together for this special one-off event of dance, music and storytelling. The music and dance have been co-created using personal stories of the performers who are all in recovery from addiction. This show is the start of a tour which begins in Brighton and ends at the Royal Opera House in London. Register now.
Liverpool Biennial
10 June – 17 September 2023 | venues across Liverpool
Returning for its 12th edition, this Liverpool Biennial is titled ‘uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things’ and addresses subjects including extraction, mapping and healing. In the isiZulu language, ‘uMoya’ means spirit, breath, air, climate and wind. Khanyisile Mbongwa, Curator of the Biennial, describes uMoya as a current and invites visitors “to lend themselves to its flow, allowing the artists’ work to be a compass” to guide them through the Biennial. Taking place in the port city that played a key role in the trade of enslaved people and the making of the British Empire, venues include historic buildings such as a former tobacco warehouse and cotton exchange, alongside the city’s galleries and museums. The Tobacco Warehouse will host a screening of Melanie Manchot’s long-form film project ‘STEPHEN’, produced in collaboration with local participants from the recovery community. ‘STEPHEN’ blurs the lines between fact and fiction to examine addiction and recovery. Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial, the film was created with a mixed cast of professional actors and local people from the recovery community. STEPHEN is based on the real-life story of Thomas Goudie, a clerk at the Bank of Liverpool, caught embezzling money to support his obsessive gambling. Find out more.
Plants, Prisons and Potential’ with Faye Claridge
18 July | online | free
Join the Prisoner Learning Alliance (PLA) for an online conversation about gardening for wellbeing in prisons with Artist Faye Claridge who works at the intersection of prisons, ecology, archives, and heritage. In 2021, Faye took Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) archive material into HMP Send, a women’s prison in Surrey. The collection documents how prisoners of war set up a horticultural society in Ruhleben internment camp in Germany during WW1. Its letters and photographs show the enormous impact that gardening had on their mental health and wellbeing. Faye’s project with the RHS – Plants, Prisons and Potential – draws on these materials to encourage women in prison to consider the role of gardening in their own wellbeing.
During this webinar, participants will learn more about Plants, Prisons and Potential at HMP Send, and about the programme it has since inspired at HMP Hewell, supported by Novus. You will also consider the benefits of the arts and horticulture in prisons and consider how prison teachers of other subjects could harness them in their lessons. The webinar will begin with the screening of a short film, co-produced by Faye and learners. This will be followed by a chaired conversation, and then questions and comments from the audience. Register online.
Course: The Lens of Lived Experience
11 September – 16 October | online | £210
What is lived experience? What is the value of communicating what it feels like to experience something? Photographer and creative facilitator, Daniel Regan, explores these questions and more in this series of informative and collaborative sessions. Participants will be supported to produce photographs that explore the complexity of their own lived experiences, whilst learning about other photographers who explore illness, disability and lived experience, as well as practical support from both Daniel and other peers in the group. This course is ideal for people who already have a grasp of the technical aspect of photography and their style and are ready to seek support in:
- Understanding what their lived experiences mean to them, and how they would like to work with them through photography. This includes developing their ideas around how to visualise elements of their lived experiences, whether that be illness, particular elements of their identity or experiences of trauma.
- Pushing the boundaries of their practice by actively trying new ideas and receiving peer to peer feedback in sessions.
New Starts and Prison Arts Symposium
28 September | Liverpool | £5
Liverpool Hope University, Novus and TATE Liverpool invite you to ‘New Starts and Prison Arts’, a day's event on the very latest progressive education practices in prison arts in the UK. The day will consist of keynote addresses from leading professors in academia, hands-on practical workshops for new ideas for prison arts from those working in prison education and the establishment of a practice forum for prison arts for the UK. Read more.
Arts Council England Capital Investment Programme
Application deadline - Monday 3 July
The Arts Council England Capital Investment Programme supports cultural organisations to adjust buildings and equipment so that they can operate safely post-pandemic and improve access, seize on technological opportunities, and reduce environmental impact. You can apply for a minimum of £100,000 and a maximum of £750,000. Find out more.
Writers & Artists (W&A) Working-Class Writers' Prize 2023
Application deadline - Monday 2 October
Are you a writer who identifies as working-class? If you are looking for an opportunity to hone your writing craft and let your work take centre stage, then this prize is for you. This competition is both a celebration of stories as a mode of communication, and a reminder of how vital it is that everyone can share their ideas and experiences via the written word. The W&A Working–Class Writers’ Prize includes a generous mentoring package as well as cash and other membership/training benefits and resources. Find out information including how to apply.
Criminal Justice Alliance report: Beyond a numbers game
This report from the Criminal Justice Alliance comes at a time of unprecedented scrutiny for our criminal justice system in relation to its record, practice and impacts on racially minoritised communities. Beyond a numbers game explores how ‘we’ can improve the recruitment, retention and progression of racially minoritised staff and how to build inclusive working cultures across the criminal justice system. Read the report.
Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN) England toolkit: Artists and Art Workers
CVAN have recently shared a fourth tool as part of their Fair and Equitable programme, a five-year commitment to instituting equity within the visual arts in England. This latest toolkit to help artists and arts workers from marginalised and underrepresented communities understand a host, or commissioning organisation’s approach and commitment to equity and inclusion. Read more.
Vacancies
Practitioner & Coordinator - Mortal Fools
Development Coordinator – Clean Break
Programme Manager – Sing Inside
Senior Project Manager, Criminal Justice - National Literacy Trust
Prison facilitator - HMP Bure & HMP Norwich - Shannon Trust
Prison facilitator - HMP Stafford - Shannon Trust
Dancers - Chameleon Youth
Policy Officer - The Howard League
Trustees - Imagine If theatre company
Business Development Manager - User Voice
Take a creative break
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Want to include something in the next newsletter?
The next NCJAA monthly newsletter will be sent on Thursday 27 July. If you have any news, opportunities or events relating to art organisations or projects within the criminal justice system that you would like included, please email info@artsincriminaljustice.org.uk by Monday 17 July.
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This newsletter is written monthly. Email artsalliance@clinks.org if you wish to submit any news.
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