“Our Time” exhibition.

Over recent years, I have started looking forward to a particular invitation arriving in my inbox. It is an invitation from Sally Varah MBE DL, the Chair of the Michael Varah Memorial Fund, to the Private View of a very special exhibition called “Our Time” which is held inside HMP Send.

“Our Time” shows the work from woman artists – some who are residents; others who are alumnae – who take part in weekly Watts Gallery Trust Art workshops at HMP Send led by their tutor Sophie Artemis. The artists all use different mediums, have very different styles and chose different subject matters for their work, but what they all have in common is the sheer joy and pride they take in their work.

It is such a pleasure to speak with the artists learning the stories behind their art and hearing them explain how their techniques have developed over time. Most of the artists had never engaged with art before enrolling in the workshops.

Thanks to the aspirations of the two co-founders and the pioneering partnership between HMP Send, the Watts Gallery Trust and the Michael Varah Memorial Fund, this year’s exhibition was already the ninth and each exhibition seems to be even more professional than the last.

Since the first exhibition in 2017, more than 1,590 artworks have been exhibited and over £7,998 has been donated by the “Our Time” artists to support victims of crime in Surrey from the proceeds of having sold their works. However, in my view, the most wonderful consequences of this exceptional in-prison exhibition are the satisfaction and sense of achievement it brings to the women. As the foreword of the exhibition catalogue says “It is exhilarating and expands our horizons.  Thank you for believing in us as artists”.