In London, Young Curators Shine a Light on Parental Incarceration
Works in this year’s Koestler Awards exhibition, showcasing art made in secure institutions, have been chosen by 18–35‑year‑olds with childhood experience of a parent in prison.
Opening today at London’s Southbank Centre, a new exhibition of art made in criminal justice settings and curated by young adults with experience of parental incarceration aims to encourage visitors to “think differently” about what it means to have a parent in prison.
The show is made up of more than 200 artworks submitted to the 2026 Koestler Awards, a national prize for work made in secure institutions. This year, members of the Parental Imprisonment Collective (PIC), a group of 18–35-year-olds with childhood experience of a parent in prison, chose art from a pool of more than 7,500 entries.
What happens to children and families when a parent goes to prison is “a perspective that is often missing from conversations about imprisonment”, Fiona Curran, chief executive of Koestler Arts, the charity behind the award, told Ocula. The collective has lived experience that has “brought enormous insight, sensitivity, and imagination to the curation”, she added.
Previous curators of the show have included high-profile names such as artists Ai Weiwei, Antony Gormley and Sarah Lucas, but “the power to select and interpret work should also be shared with people whose voices are less often heard”, Curran said. Alongside these world-leading creatives, past exhibitions have also been curated by women in HM Prison Downview, and others affected by crime, who have brought fresh perspectives to the work.
Return of the Mack Back in the Can, HM Prison & Young Offender Institution Prescoed, Matchstick Model, 2026. Courtesy Southbank Centre.
The curators have titled this year’s show Rock, Paper, Scissors, after the well-known game of chance, a reflection on how outcomes can be determined through a combination of choice and happenstance. It also references the range of materials used in the works entered into the awards.
The experience is not as marginal as one might think, with the Ministry of Justice estimating that 193,000 children in England and Wales, or one child in every two primary school classes, has a parental figure in incarceration. “We also want visitors to remember that everybody in prison was once a child too,” the curators said. “They are not just the sum of their sentence.”
The art world in focus
Subscribe to our newsletter for news and insights on artists, galleries and exhibitions.
The exhibition includes paintings, works on paper, textile and sculpture, as well as music and writing. The selection responds to themes including childhood, home, confinement, and imagination, which are dealt with through humour—as in a matchstick model of a mackerel inmate in tin-can cell—and vulnerability, as in a vista of a landscape glimpsed through a gap in the bars of a cage.
For people in secure settings, Koestler Arts recognises that creativity can “communicate ideas and emotions that are difficult to capture in ordinary conversation”, and helps those outside to “encounter people as individuals”, Curran said.
“Statistics can tell us how many people are in prison, how many children are affected, or how many leave prison each year, but they cannot convey what it feels like to be separated from family, to hold on to hope, or try to build a better future post-release,” she said. “Art can.”
