The 2023 exhibition People & Portraits of Salford marked the 30th anniversary of START, one of the United Kingdom’s earliest arts-on-prescription services.
Presented at Salford Museum & Art Gallery, the exhibition brought together painting, drawing, textiles, mosaic, ceramics, sculpture, print and photography.
Portraits of a community built through creativity
The works represented staff, volunteers and service users from different periods of the organisation’s history.
Large collaborative pieces reflected shared experiences, while individual portraits recognised people whose work had sustained the programme.
A central painting titled John portrayed the organisation’s late caretaker. It was made by Paul Jordan, START’s longest-serving volunteer.
Jordan had first entered the service as a participant. His involvement in art later led him to complete a degree in Visual Arts at the University of Salford and return as a volunteer running sessions and supporting others.
Three decades of art, connection and recovery
Bernadette Conlon founded START in 1993, before arts on prescription became widely recognised within healthcare.
Over the following 30 years, the organisation estimated that it had worked with approximately 20,000 people across Salford.
Former participants later became volunteers, peer mentors, tutors, staff, board members, artists and poets.
The exhibition did not present creativity only as a therapeutic technique. It showed an institution in which making art created long-term relationships, skills and routes into education or public practice.
People & Portraits of Salford functioned as both anniversary and collective portrait. Its history was told through the people who moved between receiving support and helping sustain it for others.