Pollux Variste Kjeld

Koestler Trust Pollux Variste Kjeld

Publisher Marketing: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Koestler Trust or award scheme, is a charity which helps prison inmates and detained psychiatric patients in the UK to express themselves creatively. The trust promotes the arts in special institutions, encouraging creativity and the acquisition of new skills as a means to rehabilitation. It was founded in 1962, by a bequest by the British-Hungarian author, Arthur Koestler. Koestler had been in three jails in separate countries, Spain also having been sentenced by the Spanish to death, France (concentration camp), and Pentonville as a suspected alien. Koestler was a leading campaigner for the abolition of capital punishment(1950's), turning his attention to jails when this law was more or less repealed. An intellectual who knew of the barren existence most prisoners endure, "the main problem is apathy, depression and gradual dehumanisation. The spark dies." He approached the Home Office, and was allowed to set up the Arthur Koestler Award (now Koestler Trust) to give prizes chiefly for art (but also for other creative activity) to prisoners, detainees and 'patients' in special hospitals such as Broadmoor.