The bench was donated to us by Sheppey Matters to be painted and returned for their Poppy exhibition to be held in Sheerness community Centre, “Gateway” and was painted on by over 70 artists. Some painted one and others painted more but all seemed to have a general excitement and anticipation as to how their work was going to be received in the community. The bench was in our class room for about 8 weeks and people would take time out to paint poppies. Some guys came in from other wings and groups to join us for a session and went after they’d finished painting their poppy. The bench was left in the Resrec workshops for another few days to allow more ‘pop’ ulation of the bench. It then went to the OMU department where another 10 people added their contributions. Finally it went back to the Learning and skills department and had a few more inmates and staff to add finishing touches. Poppy Bench is the first project of its kind in the prison to be a joint staff and inmates piece to be exhibited amongst a wide array of Poppy Art pieces for sale in and display in the community at the Memorial Day exhibition. Hosted by Justin Aggett, Arts and Media manager at Sheppey Matters and attended by the Mayor of Swale, the exhibition had over 120 visitors at the launch, who took turns sitting on the bench that was placed at the centre of the exhibition, an ideal selfie spot. The bench sat proudly as centre-piece amongst paintings, knitted poppies, poems and tea and was widely drunk over and celebrated among our resident artists.