Prince William’s Homewards programme has partnered with Eleven Eleven Foundation and Saatchi Gallery to launch a groundbreaking exhibition which seeks to utilise the power of art to enhance the UK’s understanding of homelessness and ignite hope that it can be ended.
The Prince of Wales founded Homewards in June 2023 as part of his mission to end homelessness and change the narrative and stereotypes around the crisis.
The ‘Homelessness: Reframed’ exhibition opens at Saatchi Gallery on Wednesday, August 7 and runs over six weeks until Friday, September 20.
Kensington Palace stated the prince wants the project to generate new imagery around homelessness and showcase the multiple layers of the crisis including feelings of hope.
The Prince of Wales wants the project to generate new imagery around homelessness.
PA
Prince William is eager for the public to see the people behind the homeless crisis and the exhibition displays the powerful, emotional and harrowing lived experiences of people who faced different types of homelessness.
Pim Gregory, Executive Director of Homelessness at The Royal Foundation, outlined that the project will spotlight the many forms of homelessness across the UK.
The Royal Foundation reached out to artists with lived experiences of homelessness who created art for the exhibition that reflected their own and others’ experiences of the crisis.
Stories of hope and opportunity feature in the gallery to show what the right support at the right time can do.
Pim Gregory, Executive Director of Homelessness at The Royal Foundation, outlined that the project will spotlight the many forms of homelessness across the UK.
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Pim Gregory told GB News: “That is a key part of that is changing the narrative around homelessness.
“Raising awareness of the breadth and complexity that is represented in homelessness, the many forms of hidden homelessness.
“But those stories of hope and optimism [show] that the solutions are out there and people with the right support at the right time can find a journey out of homelessness.”
The Executive Director of Homelessness at The Royal Foundation continued: “Prince William has been associated with the issue of homelessness for many years.
The ‘Homelessness: Reframed’ exhibition opens at Saatchi Gallery on Wednesday, August 7 and runs over six weeks until Friday, September 20.
The Royal Foundation
“He’s visited homelessness organisations countless times, and he’s seen in every one of those visits encountered people who both reflect that breadth of homelessness, but also those stories of hope.
“So it was something that he was very focused on, is ensuring that the general public also have that level of understanding that recognise, yes, it’s a complicated issue, but there is reason for optimism, and particularly that it will take all of society to lean in and achieve that change.
“So it was vitally important to him because the common, as you know, the common perception of homelessness is that it’s limited to rough sleeping or sort of insurmountable intractable problem. And actually, that’s not the case.”
The exhibition is separated into three sections: Invisible words, Reframed and Open doors.
Invisible words features a poignant collection of signs created by people experiencing homelessness worldwide.
The Royal Foundation
Invisible words features a poignant collection of signs created by people experiencing homelessness worldwide.
These signs which are often overlooked showcase a range of emotions from shame and desperation to humour and resilience, encouraging viewers to reconsider their perceptions.
In Reframed, artists were invited to create works reflecting their own or others’ experiences of homelessness.
Robi Walters, an internationally acclaimed artist who transforms discarded materials into beautiful works of art and whose work features in the Reframed exhibition, hailed Prince William’s impact on the project.
Robi Walters is an internationally acclaimed artist who transforms discarded materials into beautiful works of art.
GB News
Walters told GB News: “I think it’s an incredible job that Prince William is doing, having a foundation that really supports homelessness.
“It’s a complicated subject, and it’s going to take a long time, but at least facing it and doing something about it right now, is a really important thing for him to be doing.”
Regarding the wider project, the artist added: “This is an incredible project, it has already had an impact on me.
“The way that I’ve been engaging with people that are living on the streets (has) completely changed, the way that I’m viewing it and looking, doing my own researching and seeing that it’s a much wider subject.
“I really hope that it spreads and inspires other people to find out more.”
Robi Walters’s art features in the Reframed section of the exhibition.
The Royal Foundation
The final section of the exhibition, Open Doors, showcases artwork created by children and young people from the six Homewards locations.
The doors serve as metaphors for the opportunities and challenges faced by those experiencing homelessness.
To create the doors, a series of art workshops, delivered by Saatchi Gallery’s Learning team, were held to engage and educate children and young people on the topic of homelessness.
An artist with lived experience of homelessness from each of the six locations including Aberdeen; Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole; Lambeth; Newport; Northern Ireland; and Sheffield, helped deliver the workshops.
The final section of the exhibition, Open Doors, showcases artwork created by children and young people from the six Homewards locations.
The Royal Foundation
Paul Foster, Saatchi Gallery Director said: “Art has the ability to open our eyes to issues.
“Works by artists with lived experience, and by workshop participants with no art background, remind us that creativity is not dependent on any status in society and that art offers a means for us to understand the challenges facing so many fellow citizens.
“We’d encourage visitors to approach this exhibition with an open mind and to question any assumptions they might have about those experiencing ‘homelessness’.”
The Homelessness: Reframed exhibition at Saatchi Gallery will be open to the public from tomorrow.