On the 18th of May 2020, international law firm Clyde & Co has announced a new partnership for its annual Art Award programme in the UK that is part of the firm´s global corporate responsibility work. The new Art Award partner is Perspective Project, a charity which approaches mental health stigma through art and creativity. 

The Clyde & Co Art Award programme has originally been created to support the next generation of emerging artists, by helping art students in the transition from art school to a professional career as an artist. For this purpose, they invite the participants to exhibit their work in Clyde & Co´s offices. Furthermore, the Art Ward applicants receive financial and pro bono legal support, as well as professional mentoring. Since the Art Awards started in 2011, the programme has taken place in Clyde & Co offices all around the world. The firm has worked with newplatform.art and over 500 artists during the almost ten years of its existence, displaying the artists´ work across six of the firm´s offices and selling it via online auctions, with all the proceeds going to the artists. 

The partnership with Perspective Project is taking the Art Award initiative in a new direction. Peter Hirst, Clyde & Co´s Senior Partner, refers to it as “a new chapter with the Art Award with a clear focus on mental health.” As stated on the charity´s website, The Perspective Project “gives people struggling with their mental health a place to express themselves through art”. For this reason, they are giving anyone who has a need for it an artistic outlet in order to help them exploring “what they´re up against”. Everyone is encouraged to share their perspective on the Project´s online platform – no matter if it is through a painting, a poem, a story, or anything else that can be submitted online. By offering the opportunity to submit their work, the charity provides artists who are experiencing mental health issues a creative and therapeutic outlet.