Art in Prisons

Ikon’s Art in Prisons programme places artist residencies in three prisons: HMP Grendon and HMP Spring Hill in Buckinghamshire, and HMP Birmingham. Each residency shares the core belief that art practice can be a force for good in carceral settings.

The residencies are based on the same concept: the prison art school. Developed at HMP Grendon, the programme involves prisoners taking part in weekly workshops led by an Artist in Residence, during which they learn and develop new creative and technical skills. There is no formal curriculum for participation, but rather an ethos of learning. Each residency results in new artwork for display at the prison and Ikon Gallery.

At HMP Grendon, participants have worked with a diverse group of visiting artists to consider climate change, disability, masculinity, psychology and philosophy. Participants have explored technical processes including dry-point etching, screen printing, pin-hole photography, painting and jesmonite casting.

HMP Grendon’s art studio is the only curated gallery inside a prison in the UK. It hosts a programme of exhibitions including work by prisoner artists, Artists in Residence and presentations from Ikon’s exhibition programme. Displaying and viewing artwork can be a profound experience for people who live in prisons as it allows the representation of subjects and topics rarely seen in carceral settings.

Ikon’s artist residencies are accompanied by a public programme of research symposia and events at Ikon Gallery, allowing a platform for public discourse on the role of art in criminal justice. A number of related publications are available from Ikon Shop.

If you would like to get in touch about Ikon’s work in prisons please contact James Latunji-Cockbill, Producer – Art in Prisons, j.latunji-cockbill@ikon-gallery.org

For press enquiries please contact Rebecca Small, Head of Communications, r.small@ikon-gallery.org

Artist in Residence: Dr Simon J. Harris
Funded by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust (2024-26)

Ikon has organised artist residencies at HMP Grendon, Buckinghamshire, funded by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust, since 2014.

HMP Grendon is the only wholly therapeutic prison in Europe and is often considered the most researched prison in the world. It is a Category B prison which offers intensive, daily therapy for up to 232 prisoners, undertaken on one of its five democratically governed wings (or communities). Each community makes decisions for and by themselves, within a strict code of behaviour and accountability, instilling an ethos of social responsibility. The prison operates a psychodynamic model, which comprises daily group therapy, psychodrama and art therapy, conducted by leading therapists and forensic psychologists.

Artist and printmaker Dr Simon J. Harris has commenced an 18-month residency, working with community members to produce new work which will be showcased at HMP Grendon and Ikon Gallery. Harris is an artist, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for BA (Hons) Fine Art at University of Wolverhampton. Working across printmaking, photography, painting and film, Harris pursues a pictorial plane referencing the cinematic surface as an abstracted image.

Artist in Residence: Jessica Ostrowicz
Funded by the Rothschild Foundation (2025-26)

HMP Spring Hill, Buckinghamshire, is a Category D open prison, jointly managed with HMP Grendon, holding 300 prisoners. For a new residency and partnership, funded by the Rothschild Foundation, artist Jessica Ostrowicz has opened a new art studio at HMP Spring Hill. Ostrowicz is delivering a programme of workshops, exhibitions and events from the studio within the prison’s grounds.

Previously Art Lecturer at HMP Bullingdon (2023 – 2025), Ostrowicz’s art practice is focused on the concept of home and (be)longing from the perspectives of displacement, diaspora, up-rootedness and confinement. Their doctoral research is focused on the concept of ‘home’ for men incarcerated in the UK and how this understanding plays out as a sense of self in prison cells. They have a particular interest in the prison cell as a space of retributive justice and confinement, but also as a site for individual expression.

Artist in Residence: Niki Gandy
Funded by Birmingham City Council, the W.A. Cadbury Charitable Trust and the 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust (2025-26)

HMP Birmingham is a Category B prison currently holding 1000 prisoners, many of whom are either on remand or unsentenced.

Ikon has established an art studio inside the prison which is used for weekly workshops. Research underpins the residency, aiming to gauge the impact of art practice on prisoners’ health and wellbeing. Over the course of the two-year project Regan McDonald, Ikon’s Public Health Research Officer, will organise creative evaluation sessions and undertake surveys with participants, artists and prison staff.

Niki Gandy is an interdisciplinary artist and doctoral researcher working with film, photography and ambient light. At HMP Birmingham, Gandy’s research considers the effects of her chosen medium (light) on prisoners’ health, principally, that of vitamin D deficiency and circadian rhythm disruption.