Koestler Arts: Rock, Paper, Scissors

The artworks on display in this free exhibition were entered into the 2026 Koestler Awards, an arts competition for work made in criminal justice settings in the UK.

This year, Parental Imprisonment Collective (PIC), supported by Young Ambassadors from Prison Advice and Care Trust (PACT), have selected around 200 artworks from over 7,500 entries to be on display.

The five young curators drew on their own experiences when putting the show together, reflecting on themes of childhood, family, decisions and chance.

‘We want people going through the exhibition to think differently about what it means to grow up with a parent in prison. We want visitors to remember that everybody in prison was once a child too, and they are not just the sum of their sentence.

We’ve combined our minds to curate an exhibition that charts a journey of life from childhood onwards, and the different paths a life can take. We hope we’ve interpreted the work in a way the artists themselves would recognise.’

The exhibition takes its title – Rock, Paper, Scissors – from the familiar game of chance, choice and consequence. The title reflects the emergent themes within the selected artworks: the randomness and contingency of life, and the ways circumstance, timing, pressure and decision-making can intersect.

It also evokes the wide range of materials and objects used by Koestler Awards entrants, from paper, textile and paint to sculpture, craft, found materials, music and writing.

‘People’s lives are complicated. We hope this exhibition reflects that complexity not as something messy, but as something beautiful.’