Reimagining Alternative Provision Through Art, Therapy and Professional Practice

At Liberation Art Gallery, alternative provision education is not simply about offering a different classroom. It is about reimagining what education can feel like for young people who have struggled in mainstream settings. Founded and led by Caroline Pendray, Liberation Art Gallery brings together clinical art therapy, professional artistic practice, and a working public gallery to create a truly unique learning environment.

Caroline’s extensive experience in art therapy sits at the heart of the programme. As an HCPC state-registered art therapist, she has worked with children and young people facing complex challenges, including anxiety, trauma, exclusion from school, and social disadvantage. Over years of practice, she saw firsthand that many young people who disengage from traditional education are not lacking ability; they are lacking environments where they feel safe, understood, and able to express themselves without judgment.

Liberation Art Gallery was born from this understanding.

Rather than separating therapy, education, and artistic practice, Caroline envisioned a space where these elements coexist. The gallery is both a clinically informed therapeutic environment and a professional, working exhibition space. This integration is what makes Liberation’s Alternative Provision education programme distinctive and unique.

A Therapeutic Foundation

At its core, the programme is trauma-informed and therapeutically underpinned. Many young people entering alternative provision carry experiences of exclusion, emotional dysregulation, unmet learning needs, or adverse life circumstances. In a traditional classroom, these needs can go unnoticed or unsupported.

Within the gallery setting, emotional well-being is prioritised alongside creative development. Young people work in small groups with enhanced DBS-checked professional artists and are supported by state-qualified art therapists. Staff are trained in safeguarding and NSPCC child protection, and the organisation is fully insured and equipped to hold risk for vulnerable children and young people.

This therapeutic framework allows young people to regulate, reflect, and rebuild trust. Creative processes provide a non-verbal language through which feelings can be explored safely. Over time, students begin to develop greater emotional resilience, self-awareness, and confidence.

Learning Inside a Working Gallery

What makes Liberation Art Gallery especially powerful is that it is not a simulated learning space it is a real, working gallery. Young people create art in the same environment where professional exhibitions are installed, where artists curate shows, and where the public engage with contemporary practice.

Caroline has intentionally brought degree-qualified, practising artists into the programme. These are not simply workshop facilitators; they are working professionals who model artistic discipline, experimentation, and creative career pathways. Young people see first-hand what it means to be an artist from concept development to installation and exhibition.

For students who may have felt marginalised or labelled as “disengaged,” this exposure is transformative. They are positioned as emerging artists. Their work is taken seriously. Their ideas are valued. Their creative voice matters.

This shift in identity can be profound.

Bridging Education and Aspiration

Liberation Art Gallery is a registered Alternative Education Provider with Brighton & Hove Council and an approved Arts Award Centre. This ensures that the programme maintains educational rigour alongside therapeutic care.

Young people can work toward Arts Award qualifications, building portfolios that demonstrate both skill development and reflective learning. The process encourages research, experimentation, and critical thinking skills that extend beyond art and into broader educational and career pathways.

Caroline’s vision has always been about expanding horizons. For many students in alternative provision, exposure to cultural spaces, galleries, and professional networks is limited. By embedding education inside a gallery, Liberation removes barriers to cultural participation and introduces young people to creative industries that may once have felt out of reach.

The gallery becomes a bridge between isolation and connection, between exclusion and belonging, between uncertainty and possibility.

A Safe, Welcoming Space

Physical environment matters. Liberation Art Gallery has been intentionally designed as a calm, welcoming, and aesthetically inspiring space. Unlike institutional settings that can feel clinical or restrictive, the gallery offers openness, light, and creative stimulus.

Safety is both emotional and structural. With appropriate safeguarding policies, professional oversight, and clinical governance, the organisation is equipped to support young people with complex needs. This balance of warmth combined with professional accountability builds trust with schools, families, and referring services.

For many students, stepping into the gallery feels different from stepping into school. It feels adult, respectful, and creative. This subtle but powerful shift changes how they engage.

Caroline’s Vision in Action

Caroline Pendray’s work in art therapy has always centred on the belief that creativity is not a luxury; it is a fundamental human need. In bringing together therapy and professional artistic practice, she has created a model of alternative provision that is both compassionate and aspirational.

Her experience allows her to hold the emotional complexity that many young people bring. The programme does not dilute expectations; instead, it supports young people to meet them in a way that feels achievable and empowering.

The result is an education model where well-being and a sense of achievement sit side by side.

Transformative Outcomes

Young people who attend Liberation’s Alternative Provision programme often show increased confidence, improved emotional regulation, and renewed engagement with learning. They begin to take creative risks, collaborate with peers, and reflect on their own development.

Some progress back into mainstream education, and others pursue further creative study or training. All leave having experienced a space where they were seen not as a set of challenges, but as individuals with talent, potential, and voice.

A Different Way Forward

Liberation Art Gallery demonstrates that alternative provision can be more than a placement; it can be a turning point. By combining Caroline Pendray’s clinical expertise with professional artists and the dynamic energy of a working gallery, the programme offers young people something rare: safety without limitation, therapy without stigma, and creativity without compromise.

In a time when many young people are struggling to find their place within traditional systems, Liberation Art Gallery stands as a reminder that when education is rooted in empathy, professionalism, and artistic integrity, transformation is possible.