Hackney People
Paul Monks
On the walls of Core Arts' main stage, an oil painting of St Mary's Church is being hung as part of a stunning new exhibition at the mental health charity.
"I did them," one exhibitor says with cool charm, adding he first discovered Core Arts when it was based at the old Hackney hospital almost 20 years ago. It offers workshops and creative arts for people with mental health difficulties. Led by professional artists and musicians, courses include song-writing, technical software and art classes. It also runs a number of social enterprises, which members can work for.
But founder Paul Monks is keen to point out its attendees are anything but 'charity cases', rather 'they are getting tools for self reliance'. Core Arts doesn't use clinical techniques or employ therapy staff - encouraging creativity is the main goal.
He says: "We create an environment that is non-threatening, where you don't have to worry about diagnosis or symptoms; you can share common dreams - be that to have an exhibition or perform on stage for the first time. Everything else is a by-product."
To join, individuals must have at least one recent hospital admission and be in contact with Hackney's mental health services. Goals are then chosen by individuals, with support from staff and teachers. Facilities include art rooms, a stage area, music studios, computer rooms, pottery kiln and garden spaces. In one studio, a member is producing a stirring symphony single-handedly; in another, someone else is in the early stages of learning portrait drawing.
Paul says: "There are different steps for different people. The majority have been in hospital, classed as having an enduring mental health problem. We get some good arts results, but more important is improving well being."
Around 80 per cent of Core Arts trustees - who strategically direct the charity - are current or previous members and this ensures the charity keeps offering what students want. Paul says: "It can be frightening when you're locked up and treated as unwell. So it's useful to have people on the staff who new members can empathise with - who have made the journey themselves."
A trained artist himself, Paul is candid about setting up the charity in the early 1990s, after a colourful career that up to that point had seen him work as a set artist with Spitting Image and teaching in Nigeria.
He says: "I just wanted a free studio and was sick of paying rent. A purely selfish act, but it ended up being a really interesting time. Most of the hospital was closed, just the psychiatric wards were left. I kept my door open and met lots of people who had no money, or were homeless and living in tunnels. Some would muck around with the paints, so I'd set up shows for them, but mix it up with art students, so you wouldn't know whose work was whose."
It is this focus on the artist, rather than the disability, that became key to Core Arts when it was formally established in 1994. The hospital room, first offered in 1992, was extended to a ward, then a block. Following the hospital's full closure, Core Arts transferred to its current home at St Barnabus Terrace, E9, and now around 320 members use its facilities a year. Funding comes through the Council and local NHS, along with support from 15 other local authorities, lottery grants and general fundraising.
Paul is hoping to increase the charity's self-sufficiency with a landscaping business, which sees members redesign outdoor spaces for payment. Homerton hospital is on its growing client list. As well as raising money for the charity, it does much to reduce the stigma of mental health.
Paul says: "It's value for money and offers good outcomes on top. Think how good it must feel to go back there in control? For members, you can learn something new every week, do a few hours work, just that can mean a lot."
Curriculum Vitae
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1964 Born in Blackpool
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1988-9 MPhil in Public Arts from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee
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1990 Works for development charity VSO in Nigeria as a technology teacher
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1992 Sets up Core Arts, it gains charity status in 1994
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1997 Charity moves into St Barnabus Terrace, Homerton
- 2006 Wins RSA award for social entrepreneurs
More information
For more info call: 020 8533 3500, or visit: www.corearts.co.uk
Page updated: 24 Jun 2011
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