Publish date: 26 September 2022
Congratulations to patients and staff at St Bernard’s who have been won a variety of awards in this year’s Koestler Awards.
The Koestler Awards are for arts in criminal justice and encourage work from visual art, writing, design or music. This year celebrates 6o years of The Koestler and a whopping 7,000 entries were submitted. The work was judged by this year’s curator, Ai Weiwei with St Bernard’s scooping four awards this year:
- St Bernard's Hospital band (Tony Hillis Wing and The Orchard) won the Original Silver Award (and £40) for their song, ‘We Are West London’
- A service user from Damson Ward, The Orchard, won a commended award for their ‘A Summer Hammock’ drawing [pictured below]
- A service user from Parkland Ward, The Orchard, won a commended award for their ‘Action Kneed-Head Mixed Media’ work
- A service user from Parkland Ward, The Orchard, won a commended award for their ‘Cherry Bird’ drawing [pictured below].
[Artwork pictured: 'Cherry Bird' and 'Summer Hammock'.]
Vickie Le Sache, Head of Arts Therapies, shared her delight saying ‘We’re very proud that St Bernard’s has won, in amongst such a large, competitive field.’ The team hope to make it to the presentation ceremony ‘to cheer on the band’ later this year too.
Some of this year’s artwork will be displayed at the Southbank Centre exhibition – though we’ll have to wait and see if some of our award-winners’ work will be selected. However, after last year’s minibus trip to the exhibition proving popular with patients, Vickie’s team are looking to arrange another in the coming months. One patient said: ‘The music inspired me the most. And some of the artwork was about mental health and it touched me.’ I’m sure this year’s trip will be just as well-received.
Congratulations again to all at St Bernard’s on their fantastic achievements!
