Southbank Centre to showcase art made by Britons shielding from Covid

More than 600 pieces of art created by thousands of people who were shielding and in extreme isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic will tour this year as part of a Southbank Centre exhibition that aims to showcase the importance of creativity.

More than 4,500 people have taken part in the Art by Post initiative, which was started during the first days of lockdown in March 2020. Participants as young as 18 and as old as 103 created poems, visual art and music.

Abstract paintings, landscapes, poetry about the pandemic and music playlists were created by some of the most vulnerable people in the UK. Unlike some similar initiatives that embraced digital platforms during lockdown, Art by Post went for an old-school method: posting pamphlets with advice by artists to participants along with freepost envelopes so their completed work could be returned.

Those pieces of work will form the basis of an exhibition that will start at the Southbank Centre before touring to 12 venues over a five-month period, including Banbury Museum in Oxfordshire and Home in Manchester.

The Southbank Centre’s director of creative learning, Alexandra Brierley, said the project was designed to bridge the “digital divide” and reach those who were already “very isolated and voiceless” before the pandemic hit.

“For some it’s provided a real sense of structure and rhythm to periods when every day felt the same,” said Brierley. “For others it’s been about rediscovering something that they hadn’t done since they were a younger person.”

The scheme started with a target of 300 participants but within 10 days had more than 1,000 applications, and 4,500 people would eventually take part, with GPs, care homes and housing associations referring participants.

Artists, poets and musicians contributed to the pamphlets, which acted as a creativity guide to those taking part, with the photographer Suzie Larke, the poet Jacqueline Saphra and the musician Tim Steiner all having a role.

The artists had to ensure the tasks they asked those taking part to do did not require difficult-to-source materials, especially at the start of the pandemic when a nationwide lockdown was in place. “The concept was that it could be something that wouldn’t require you to spend loads of money and that it could be made with things you could find within your house,” said Brierley.

A UK-wide bus stop campaign is planned to showcase the work, alongside doorstep portraits of the participants who come from as far afield as Dover and Aberdeen.

Brierley said the hope was the exhibition would not only show the positive impact that creativity could have but also remind people that once lockdowns ended there were still those who would be isolated due to their conditions.

“This is a project that tackles loneliness and isolation, which were there before Covid-19, it’s just come very much to the foreground for people,” she said. “Our concern is that once we emerge from the pandemic that we’re going to forget, and the people for whom this is actually their daily existence will be forgotten again.”

The Art by Post exhibition will open at the Southbank Centre on 20 September.