Co-designing with Prisoners [Workshop]

What is it like to make and co-design inside a prison? This participatory workshop explores creativity within constraint through hands-on making.

Artist Alex Schady will demonstrate screenprinting and invite participants to make badges using processes developed with prisoners.

Members of STITCH UP, a volunteer sewing group active at HMP Pentonville, will then lead a practical exercise drawing on their experience of creative collaboration in prison.

The final session, led by Professor Lorraine Gamman, invites participants to reflect on the practical restrictions, negotiations and unexpected possibilities encountered, and consider how collaboration and creative agency can emerge within constrained environments. 

Come prepared to make something, meet others, exchange ideas and think differently about what creativity can make possible inside a prison. 

Being Human Festival

This event is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 5-14 November 2026. Led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. For further information please see beinghumanfestival.org.