Art display visits The Halpern Gallery, Chatham

Pictures for The Beehive, the art display raising funds for Diverse Abilities’ Splash Appeal, is visiting The Halpern Gallery in Chatham, Kent as part of a tour to showcase drawings of the people supported by the disability charity.

The first showing took place in September 2021 was accompanied by an auction of donated work by acclaimed artists including Antony Gormley, Maggi Hambling and Paula Rego. The event raised over £100,000 towards The Splash Appeal which aims to raise over £1million to build a much-needed state-of-the-art therapy pool for the adult’s supported to the charity, who currently do not have the access they need to hydrotherapy.

Henrietta Young, artist and curator, commented: “It was a great privilege to get to know and make friends with the people at The Beehive, and the whole business of drawing and being drawn was an extraordinary experience for everyone involved in the project. We hope that people viewing the resulting work will come away with a better understanding of disability.”

The display of portraits will be open to the public at The Halpern Gallery on Thursday 29th September until Saturday 1st October, 10.00am until 4.00pm daily.

Helen Mortimer, development manager at Diverse Abilities, added: “Henrietta’s passion to raise the visibility of those with disabilities through art is remarkable. It is very exciting to display these portraits for people to see in Kent, with the opportunity to raise awareness and hopefully funds towards the desperately needed hydrotherapy pool.”

Visit picturesforthebeehive.org.uk to find out more about the exhibition and dates of the tour in Suffolk, Kent and London.