Programme 01
Educative programmes
Workshops and short courses, often run in schools and community spaces, that introduce people to materials, techniques and the simple habit of making.
Suffolk · Charity no. 1163484
Arts and mental wellbeing, side by side.
A small Suffolk charity using educative and therapeutic arts programmes to support people across all ages.
10+Years working with Suffolk communities
3Core programmes — education, therapy, partnerships
All agesFrom children to older adults
CIORegistered with the Charity Commission
IOur story
A small Suffolk charity building bridges between the arts and mental wellbeing.
Lockarts began with a simple observation: that the practice of making — quietly, with others, with your hands — does something good for the mind. From our base near Hitcham, we run educative and therapeutic arts programmes for children, older adults, and anyone whose wellbeing has taken a knock.
We work in welcoming, unhurried spaces. We partner with galleries, museums, schools and healthcare teams to put rich creative learning within reach of people who don't usually get invited in. The work is small in scale and steady in pace, and that is the point.
“The arts can help keep us well, aid our recovery and support longer lives better lived.” — All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing, Creative Health inquiry, 2017
IIWhat we do
Three strands of work, one quiet idea.
Everything we run sits inside one of three programmes — designed so that learning, therapy and partnership feed each other rather than compete.
Programme 02
Therapeutic arts
Small-group sessions held alongside healthcare partners. Slow, structured, and led by people trained to hold space — for grief, for recovery, for the long quiet middle.
Programme 03
Community partnerships
Long-running collaborations with arts venues, heritage sites and NHS teams across Suffolk — so that what we make together can live somewhere beyond the workshop.
IIIUpcoming sessions
What's running this season.
A selection of workshops and group sessions across South Suffolk. All sessions are free or low-cost; materials are provided. Please get in touch to book a place or check availability.
Wed 22 May10:30 — 12:30
Watercolour, slowlyAn introductory session for adults — no experience needed.
Hitcham Village Hall
Education
Sat 1 June14:00 — 16:00
Making spaceTherapeutic arts group for adults recovering from anxiety or low mood. Referral-friendly.
St Peter's Hall, Stowmarket
Therapy
Thu 13 June15:30 — 17:00
Drawing in companyIntergenerational drawing session, partnered with a local primary school.
Lavenham Guildhall
Community
Wed 26 June10:30 — 12:30
Memory and mark-makingReminiscence-led art session for older adults and people living with dementia.
Hadleigh Community Centre
Therapy
IVWho we work with
People our programmes are designed for.
Lockarts is intentionally broad in who it welcomes. We work most often with these groups, in partnership with the people and services that already support them.
Children & young people
Older adults
People living with mental illness
Socially excluded communities
VOur charitable objectives
What we exist to do, in plain English.
These are the two things we promise the Charity Commission, our partners and the people we work with. Everything we do should map back to one of them.
Relieving illness and supporting wellbeing through the arts.
We design programmes for people — including children — living with mental or physical illness, or facing social and economic disadvantage. The work is educative and therapeutic in equal measure: skills you can take home, and a steadier mind to take them with.
Drawing people back in, one workshop at a time.
Loneliness and social exclusion are hard to name and harder to budge. Our arts-based programmes give people a reason to come, somewhere warm to sit, and people to make something alongside — the modest beginnings of feeling part of a place again.
VIVoices
What people tell us afterwards.
A few words from participants, partners and the team. Names are abbreviated where people preferred.
I came to one session and stayed for the whole season. It is the only place all week where nobody asks me how I'm coping — we just paint.
Margaret, 71
Therapeutic arts participant
The team are unhurried in a way that's rare now. Our pupils come back to class calmer, and the work they make is genuinely good.
J. Thornton
Headteacher, Suffolk primary partner school
Referring patients to a Lockarts group has become part of how we think about social prescribing in this practice. It works because it's small.
Dr R. Patel
GP, South Suffolk
VIIFrom the studio
Our work, in pictures.
A handful of recent pieces from our workshops and community projects — papier-mâché sculpture, hand-made puppets, drawings by young participants, and quiet hours in the studio.
Working alongside
NNHS Suffolk & North East Essex
AArts Council England
LLavenham Guildhall
SSuffolk Mind
CCommunity Action Suffolk
HHadleigh Community Centre
VIIIGet involved
Three ways to walk alongside us.
We're small, and that means every conversation matters. Whether you have an afternoon, a venue, or a few pounds, we'd love to hear from you.
Volunteer
Help us run workshops, look after materials, drive people to sessions, or simply sit alongside someone who has come on their own. Training and tea provided.
Get in touch →Partner with us
If you run a gallery, museum, school, GP practice or community space in Suffolk, we'd love to talk about what we might build together over the coming year.
Start a conversation →Donate
We accept gifts directly. Please get in touch and we’ll talk you through where your support would land, and the workshops it would help fund.
Materials & venue£58
Facilitator time£35
Admin & safeguarding£7
Support our work directly →
IXTrust & transparency
How we keep people safe, and our books in order.
We work with children, older adults and people in recovery, so the boring-but-essential things matter to us. Here is the short version.
A written policy, reviewed every year by the board.
Everyone running a Lockarts session holds a current enhanced DBS check. We follow safer-recruitment practice for staff and volunteers, and we have a named safeguarding lead reporting directly to the Chair.
We hold the minimum we need, and only for as long as we need it.
We are registered as a data controller in the UK. Personal details shared with us — a referral form, a mailing list sign-up — are kept securely and never sold or passed to third parties for marketing.
Annual returns filed on time, every year.
As a registered CIO (charity number 1163484), we file our annual return, accounts and trustees’ report with the Charity Commission. Our most recent filings are publicly available on the Charity Commission register.
XGovernance
Our trustees.
The board that holds Lockarts to its charitable purpose.
XIFrequently asked
Questions we hear most.
Can't see your question here? We're happy to answer by phone or email — see the contact details below.
Who can take part in a Lockarts session?
Most of our open sessions are designed for adults of any age, with no previous arts experience needed. Some sessions are referral-friendly and run alongside healthcare partners, while others are for children and young people through partner schools.
If you're unsure whether a session is right for you or someone you support, please call or email — we'll talk it through.
Do I need any artistic experience?
No. The work is about the act of making, not the finished piece. Our facilitators set up sessions so that someone holding a brush for the first time and someone returning to painting after decades are both comfortable in the same room.
Are sessions free?
Most sessions are free; some longer courses ask for a small contribution to cover materials, which we waive on request. We never want cost to be the reason someone doesn't take part.
Can my organisation partner with Lockarts?
Yes, and we'd love to hear from you. We work with arts venues, heritage sites, schools, healthcare teams and community groups. The best partnerships start with a conversation about what you're already doing and where a creative programme might add something.
How can I donate?
To support our work, please email us directly — we can talk you through current funding needs and the simplest way to support a specific session or programme.
Where can I read your governing documents?
Our full filing, including constitution and annual returns, is publicly available through the Charity Commission register — search for charity number 1163484, or use the link in the footer below.
XIIGet in touch
Friday Lane Cottage, Hitcham.
We answer the phone, we read the post, and we always reply to email — usually within a few days. There is no enquiry too small.
- Registered address
- Friday Lane Cottage
Church Lane, Hitcham
Ipswich, IP7 7NN
South Suffolk, England - Telephone
- 07500 800559
- info@lockarts.org.uk