Koestler Arts and the Old Fire Station present Through the Blue, an exhibition showcasing artwork, music and writing made in criminal justice settings in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey.
Koestler Arts is an arts charity that works with every prison in the UK to unlock hope, talent and potential. Each piece in the exhibition has been made by someone in a prison, secure hospital, young offender institution or on probation in the region and entered into the 2025 Koestler Awards.
The exhibition has been co-curated by a group of people on probation in Oxford and Reading, who considered more than 600 Koestler Awards entries from the region and selected 70 to be displayed. They were drawn to intriguing works that resonated with their own experience of the criminal justice system and reflected their varied creative interests. Boundaries and thresholds loomed large in their recollections of their own time in prison and are depicted in many of the exhibited artworks: walls, doors, windows, hatches. Means of containing, but also of seeing and moving through.
Together, the exhibited artworks explore the experience of navigating a way through obstacles, drudgery, sadness and towards freedom; and both the excitement and fear that prospect can inspire. We also see the potential for creativity to blur and breach these boundaries through works made to share with loved ones and to mark moments of humour and connection.
Many of the works deal with light and dark, in and out, and the space and movement between these states. The colour blue, prominent in the selection and exhibition design, underscores this duality. While blue is associated with cold and melancholy, it is also associated with blue skies and sunny days. It is the frightening, unknown depths of the ocean and an expansive horizon, calm and full of possibility.
Some of the artworks will be available to purchase through the Koestler Arts website, with a portion going to the artists as well as to Koestler Arts and Victim Support. There will also be opportunities for visitors to write feedback on their favourite pieces in the exhibition, which will be sent directly to the artists.
One of the exhibition co-curators comments:
“Enjoy the variety in this exhibition. Contemplate the stories behind these works. See the hope and often the humour. Be drawn along the journeys illustrated here. These artists are showing you their world and their future.”
Fiona Curran, CEO of Koestler Arts comments:
“I am delighted that Koestler Arts has been able to produce its first show in Oxford, with the Old Fire Station. The powerful artwork in the exhibition represents the hard work of hundreds of people in the area who have put their efforts into sharing their voices with the outside world through the 2025 Koestler Awards, and the many educators and staff supporting them to access the benefits of creativity.”
ABOUT KOESTLER ARTS:
Koestler Arts is an arts charity that encourages people in every prison in the UK, and other criminal justice settings, to access the proven benefits of the arts. The charity’s vision is that the power of the arts unlocks hope, talent and potential in the lives of people in the criminal justice system.
Koestler Arts provides an annual art awards programme — the Koestler Awards — open to people in prisons, secure hospitals, immigration removal centres and secure children’s homes, as well as people on probation and community sentences. It also offers a post-release arts mentoring scheme, arts membership for people in prison, family engagement opportunities, and a programme of exhibitions, events and publications.
To deliver its mission, Koestler Arts works in partnership with other organisations, art world experts, and people with lived experience of the criminal justice system; past exhibition curators have included Ai Weiwei, Jeremy Deller and John Costi, Camille Walala, Antony Gormley, Benjamin Zephaniah, Speech Debelle, Sarah Lucas, Grayson Perry, the families of people in prison and graduates of the Koestler Arts mentoring programme.
koestlerarts.org.uk