'Truly awesome display of some very talented artists. Well done to you all. You should be very proud (exhibition attendee)

Please have a show every year - it is so uplifting and full of colour - and you are all fabulous artists (exhibition attendee)

The culmination of 18 months studio practice at Project Art Works, this exhibition showcased works by six people who have complex needs/learning disabilities supported by an artist mentor.

The exhibition displayed six very different approaches to image making - from brightly revived portraits of 70's and 80's pop icons to complex, colourful worlds intricately drawn across the canvas. The images provide a vivid reminder of the different internal worlds of the artists: realities that might otherwise remain invisible.

'It has taken over 70 years for Albert to be given a label that he is proud of. When people are asked to describe him, the first thing they say is "He is an Artist". Taking part in mentoring studios has enabled Albert to have an autonomy with his art that he has been unable to achieve in any other venue or area of his life.' Support Worker

The artwork and a fully illustrated catalogue are for sale at the gallery and on line (see below).

14th May to 25th May 2010: Hastings Arts Forum,
36 Marina, St Leonards on Sea,
East Sussex TN38 OBU.

For one day in July 2009, Fort Brockhurst - an English Heritage site in Gosport - became a small kingdom populated by people with neurological impairment; people who are highly sensitive to spatial qualities of scale, light and sound and the different buildings and environments of the Fort. Their visit was recorded through sound, video and drawing and then processed to produce elements of a mixed media installation. This film shows a narrative of some of the journeys taken that July day and follows the investigations and navigational decisions of people as they explored the Fort's Keep.

Kate Adams, artist and director of Project Art Works has conducted several innovative investigative projects that focus on how people with complex needs experience built space. Despite a huge increase in awareness of issues around all aspects of physical disability and the effects of the Disability Discrimination Act on Building Control processes, there is little information or discussion about the impact of built space on those with perceptual and/or cognitive impairments.

The creative team on this project included Kate Adams (lead artist), Ben Rivers (film), Tim Corrigan (film and support of people) and Marley Cole (sound). They collaborated with a group of people with whom we have worked for some time on our Tuesday Studio programme in Hastings. Tuesday Studio The artist team worked closely with the participants and those who love and know them well, to establish consent for exploring the Fort, for their being filmed and for the subsequent installation being shown at the English Heritage Open Day.

Challenging the traditional concept of the film festival, Shot by the Sea explores film in its widest application with a particular focus in its 8th year, on moving image installations. In 2009, The Electric Palace Cinema joined forces with Project Art Works, inviting us to be the first guest curators of the Projection Space. 'Air to Earth' explored relationships with the primary elements of nature and their resonance in memory and experience.

In Back Woods, Jim Roseveare created a silent, intimate illusion of the density of trees en masse with the moving element as light. In IVUL (the installation) Andrew Kotting deconstructed and re-presented his film IVUL which premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival 2009. The installation created a world apart using a forest of Bonsai Trees and two key scenes from the film. It incorporated a series of drawings made in collaboration with his daughter Eden, who has Joubert Syndrome. Ben Rivers joined in with the life of a family grown wild out of doors to create Ah Liberty! (winner of the Tiger Award, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2008). Rivers' films are rich, cinematic portraits that explore wilderness environments and self-contained worlds, representing memory through visual fragments. An on-going collaboration between visual artists and people with neurological impairments at Project Art Works studio, Red Balloon was an intricately constructed film installation taking inspiration from the classic 1953 short, Le Balon Rouge.

'Air to Earth' was shown across three spaces in Hastings: 12 Claremont, The Basement; F-ISH Gallery;The Shop, 3 York Buildings.

Over 2,500 people visited the installations over a three week period.

In September 2008, we exhibited at three locations in Hastings.

A Journey through Installation demonstrated our pioneering approach to art, collaboration and disability through works and installations that include painting, drawing, printmaking, animation and film. The installations revealed process and the way in which art and new media can be used to research individual experience, understanding and communication.

Our Summer Workshops ran for two days per week during July and August. The aim of the programme was to provide supportive and creative activities for families who have a child with a severe learning disability. It provided the opportunity for children, their family and siblings to work together in self directed creative workshops with professional artists.

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In 2007 the film made of this installation was selected for the Jerwood Drawing prize and went on a National Tour.

In July 2006, Project Art Works and the staff and pupils of Saxon Mount School created a temporary transformation of the school grounds during a week long residency. They erected a geodesic dome, flew a camera from a helium filled blimp and filmed the gradual evolution of a landscape drawing using field markers and large coloured- discs representing the different class groups and zones.

From January 2006 we worked with Saxon Mount Special School involving pupils in a series of workshops at the Project Art Works studios in Hastings . Each class group has spent a day making huge paintings (5x1.8 meters) of bird's eye views of their school and its grounds. In July Project Art Works and the staff and pupils of the school created a temporary transformation of the school grounds during a week long residency.

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Our 2006 / 2007 Open Studios programme began at the beginning of October. The one-year Open Studios programme will provide an opportunity for people with complex learning disabilities to work alongside artists, non-disabled students from Higher Art Education and people from different adult social care settings on an ongoing and inclusive programme of creativity and learning.

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Our Summer Workshops ran for two days per week during July and August. The aim of the programme was to provide supportive and creative activities for families who have a child with a severe learning disability. It provided the opportunity for children, their family and siblings to work together in self directed creative workshops with professional artists.

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Project Art Works has received a significant award from the Camelot Foundation (£90,000) towards a new project - the Personal Profile Pilot which will take place between March 2005 and the autumn of 2007

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In partnership with Sussex Autistic Community Trust (SACT) we ran a digital film and animation art foundation course for twelve young adults with Autism and Aspergers Syndrome. The programme was for 18 weeks, divided into four terms, and took place here in our studios at Project Art Works on a weekly basis.

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Project Art Works ran an innovative, inclusive pilot art course for adults who have severe learning disabilities in partnership with Brighton University and Hastings College of Arts and Technology (HCAT).

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In 2004 Project Art Works were commissioned by MENCAP to deliver a number of projects at Tate Modern as part of the MENCAP's 'In The Frame' – a national conference on Art and Learning Disability held on June 20th 2005.

In August 2004 Project Art Works ran an art workshop for children with severe learning disabilities, their families and carers. As with all our summer workshops this project was designed to provide interesting and appropriate art activities during the long summer holidays.

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This was a challenging project that gave Downs View SLD School (Brighton), Ickburgh SLD School (Hackney) and Torfield School (Hastings) the opportunity to work intensively with artists over the course of a full academic year, enabling a level of continuous engagement often missing from arts in schools projects.

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Project Art Works received a major commission from West Sussex County Council for permanent installations of art in a new special school build in Crawley – Manor Green College and Manor Green Primary School.

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In 2004 Project Art Works successfully completed Project India, a three-year residency at co-located secondary schools Hazel Court (SLD) and The Causeway in Eastbourne.

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Project Art Works ran summer art workshops for young autistic children aged 4-8 at Torfield School Hastings during August 2002. The aim of the project was to research ways of working with children within the autistic spectrum to encourage engagement and interaction through creative activities.

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Mencap UK commissioned Project Art Works to contribute to a National Training Video on good practice in the arts for people who have a learning disability.

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Project Art Works ran three one day workshops at Hastings College of Arts and Technology (Supportive Education Sector) during November 2001. The work was a collaboration with 12 young people who have learning disabilities, Hastings College and the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill.

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Project Craig involved a series of creative workshops in London and the South East engaging children, young people and their carers in making art.

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Project Art Works ran six three hour art and digital video workshops over three weeks during the summer 2001 at the Hollington Youth Centre. The sessions were run by three artists from Project Art Works and supported by a youth worker from Hastings and Bexhill Area Youth Services.

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During June 2001, Project Art Works ran practical creative workshops for a week at Nine Acre School, which caters for young people who have severe learning disabilities.

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