St. Martin church in Bullring, Birmingham 'Unchained' exhibition

UNCHAINED: Art Beyond Walls

Venue: St. Martin church in Bullring, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Time: Tuesday 16 October to Sunday 19 October 2025.

Step into UNCHAINED — a raw and moving collection of artworks created by men in prison, each piece a powerful reflection on what it means to be bound… and what it means to be free.

This exhibition is a collaboration between Community Arts Projects UK and Beating Time, and Chaplaincy in HMP Birmingham. Event happened to celebrate the Prison Week 2025.

•  Through words, symbols, and striking imagery, these artists explore confinement, regret, faith, and the hope of transformation.

•  Displayed within the serene beauty of Saint Martin’s Church in Bullring Birmingham , this exhibition invites deep reflection on grace, forgiveness, and our shared longing for redemption.

•  These works remind us: even behind walls, the spirit can still soar.

The mural UNCHAINED created by men within HMP Winson Green prison. This mural gives voice to the struggle between confinement and freedom. This collaborative mural, which explores the emotional weight of imprisonment, and the enduring human spirit. A silhouetted figure stands at the center filled with the words of men who know what it means to be chained. Around him flow words of freedom: what they long gor, and what they are learning to believe in again.

UNCHAINED Mural

'IN THEIR OWN WORDS': This mural represents the raw, unfiltered beginning of the Unchained project. It is a collective process where the men were invited to express, in their own languages, what is means to live within and beyond the walls of confinement.

Their words flow across the surface: raw, honest, and often conflicted, speaking of regret, anger, loss, resilience and even their perception of the prison officers who shape their daily lives.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS mural

Prison cell installation : Step inside a prison cell stripped to its bare essential - cold walls, a narrow bed, and a sliver of light. Every detail tells a story of confinement, endurance, and the human desire for freedom. This space challenges you to confront the invisible chains in your own life and imagine what it truly means to be unchained.

Prison cell installation

For more photos of the exhibition please visit our gallery.