Measuring The Effectiveness Of Art In Prisons
At Koestler Arts, we use research and reports to inform the work that we do encouraging participation in the arts in prisons. Evaluation is built-in to all our projects and events and is essential for making sure our work helps prisoners and individuals in secure settings.
On this page, you will find a selection of publications which we have produced alongside academic partners in recent years, as well as in-house evaluations and impact statements showing the effectiveness of art in prisons.
Each Koestler Awards entrant is asked to complete monitoring and evaluation forms so we can listen and respond to their views on how we can better support participation in the arts in prisons and beyond.
Our steering groups, trustees, staff, and volunteers include people with lived experience of the criminal justice system.
Please take a look at the documents below to read more about our projects.
We regret that, because of the high volume of enquiries we receive and our small staff team, we cannot respond to requests for help with dissertations. We invite students interested in how the arts can benefit people in prison and other secure settings to read the evaluations available to download on our research page and to visit the NCJAA Evidence Library.

Annual Review 2021-22
Our annual review looks at our projects, events and plans from the last financial year.

The Impact Inside 2020
A report by report by Manchester Metropolitan University which reveals the positive effect of the Koestler Awards on our people in the criminal justice system.

The Arts Of Desistance 2014
Read an evaluation of the Koestler Arts Mentoring Programme, carried out by Leonidas K. Cheliotis and the London School of Economics and Political Science.