May 2017

The Artskickers Awards
#
A superhero
on a mission
Core Arts harnesses creativity and gives its members the chance to engage with those who have similar interests
Sophie Baggott talks Paul Monks, Core Arts founder and
winner of the #Artskickers Community Superhero award
It’s 25 years since the artist Paul Monks came
face to face, by chance, with what he now sees as
the true purpose of art. In 1992 his organisation,
Core Arts, was born in a dusty, vacant space
within Hackney Hospital and is now decades into
its work promoting positive mental health and
wellbeing through creative learning.
This year Core Arts was voted
'Community Superhero (organisation)'
at the #Artskickers Awards – and a
worthier winner is hard to imagine.
In true superheroic style, Paul saw
the award as a tool to broaden the
scope of Core Arts’ public profile. “It’s
always great to be able to highlight
the arts’ value, especially at times when
they’re not as supported,” Paul said. “We
need a constant drip feed to get our message
out there, which has a knock-on effect for
fundraising.”
Sharing the potential of the arts is all-important
to the founder, who added: “It’s a continuous
education for those who can make a difference
to Core Arts: to help them see the power of the
arts.”
On arriving in Hackney a quarter of a century ago,
Paul was an artist seeking a reason for the
arts. The result of this search was, in his
own words, “totally unexpected”. He
happened to meet a few long-term
psychiatric patients while working in
his Hackney Hospital-based studio,
which swiftly grew into a haven
for curious patients to express
themselves creatively away from the
grind of the psychiatric ward.
“They gave me a new interest in creativity,”
Paul said, who views Core Arts as running with
a mutual dynamic between members and
co-ordinators. “We all have common goals,” he
observed. The organisation not only harnesses
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