AN inspiring collection of artwork, music and creative writing by offenders is to go on display at Wales Millennium Centre from February 6 to April 13.

Curated by women from Gibran UK - an organisation supporting ex-offenders across Wales - the ‘Illumination’ exhibition will present pieces selected from entries to the 2014 Koestler Awards.

Illumination, which will be prison arts charity, the Koestler Trust’s only exhibition of work solely from Welsh institutions this year, will present artwork and creative writing by prisoners, people in secure hospitals and people on community sentences.

Supported by Gibran UK (based in Llanover, near Abergavenny) a group of female ex-offenders volunteered to curate the exhibition and create textile artworks in response to some of the written works.

Returning to Wales Millennium Centre for the second time with an exhibition, the Koestler Trust is a charitable scheme that has been rewarding artistic achievement in the criminal justice sector for over 50 years.

The aims of the Koestler Awards include providing a positive goal towards which offenders can strive, a means of acquiring and practising new skills, and often discovering unrecognised talent and an outlet for creative energies and emotions.

The ‘Illumination’ exhibition, ties in closely with the other boundary breaking projects and events taking place at the Centre this spring, all of which have women at their heart.

The first Koestler Awards exhibition to come to Wales Millennium Centre was the ‘Secure’ exhibition in 2013 which was also curated by offenders from HM Prison & Young Offender Institution Parc.

Entry to the exhibition is free.