Antony Gormley curates 'Inside' exhibition of prisoner art at Southbank Centre

Sir Antony Gormley will curate the tenth edition of the Annual Koestler Trust Exhibition at London's Southbank Centre, opening September 21, 2017. Titled 'Inside', the show features works by incarcerated British artists selected from the Koestler Trust's programs. The Trust, a UK charity promoting arts in prisons for over 50 years, receives over 8,000 annual submissions and draws about 20,000 visitors to its exhibitions. Previous curators include Sarah Lucas (2016, under the title 'Free'), Jeremy Deller, and rapper Speech Debelle. The exhibition is part of the 'Art by Offenders' initiative and runs alongside a separate Koestler award that does not influence curatorial choices. Parallel exhibitions occur across the UK in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Gateshead, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Cardiff. A future edition curated by Jenni Fagan is scheduled for Scotland between November and December 2017, with another exhibition planned in Colchester in 2018. The article also mentions similar prison art projects in Italy: at Rome's Regina Coeli prison (outside/inside/out, March 2016–February 2017) by Laura Federici, Pax Paloscia, and Camelia Mirescu; in Taranto (L'altra città, May 8–June 15, 2017) co-curated by Achille Bonito Oliva; and Mark Bradford's 'Processo Collettivo' for the US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, collaborating with cooperative Rio Terà dei Pensieri to create a street shop selling inmate-made products.