making a difference with award winning photography
Heather Small (M People) helping out with the Heart Galleries Project
Heart Gallery project outline 2007
1. background
Flying back from photographing Anthony Hopkins at his home in Miami Beach, Cambridge Jones (CJ) picked up an American magazine which had an article about The Heart Galleries in the USA. The galleries had achieved enormous success in finding homes for kids who were not finding suitable adopted parents and in bringing forward potential adopters from a far wider cross section of the community.
CJ was himself adopted at the age of 2 and a half years and he immediately wondered whether anyone was trying to help in the same way in the UK.
They were not. So he contacted the designer Bruce Oldfield (who was himself a Barnardo’s boy) who immediately set up a meeting with Andrew Nebel at Barnardo’s and the ball was in motion. Lulu Guinness, Andrew Lincoln, Stephen Mangan and Gail Porter soon pledged support and the momentum became self fulfilling. Mario Testino and Cherie Blair soon joined in....
Interest from galleries was instant and Channel 4 are in discussions with Shine TV to make a documentary of the whole project.
2. the USA experience (‘Heart Galleries’)
· Amazing results in states mean it has spread from just one state to now being in 40+ states!
· hugely successful at raising awareness and finding long term homes for kids
· Celebrity Photographers take portraits of kids who need adopting
· Exhibition and book result
BUT
· The real issue here is the press coverage
· In USA up to 40% of kids photographed (and they are deliberately the hardest to place) found homes
· The reason is the media coverage which results because the celebrity photographers have turned their lenses away from Madonna & Joan Collins for a day
· Thus the message penetrates far beyond the normal eyes and ears of those who have already considered adoption
· It arrives in people's bedrooms and front rooms with Sunday papers, radio, TV interviews, internet etc
· Bringing a whole new and much wider group of potential adopters to the table
3. the UK project goals
A. To raise general awareness and bring a wider range of, and more, potential adopters to the table
B. To increase the chances of finding homes for some of the kids featured (who will deliberately be some of the harder kids to place.)
4. the UK project approach
the success of this project will not be judged by the pictures, the people who attend the gallery or the opening party. IT WILL BE ALL ABOUT HOW MUCH PRESS INTEREST WE CAN MANAGE TO GENERATE. This is what has made such a huge impact in the states. We thus need to plan very carefully how we make up our celebrity team.
5. collaborative partnership
to avoid pitfalls and to ensure we maximize the potential for change this project should be a partnership between The Cambridge Jones Partnership and Barnardo’s. CJ will make it happen and put together the celebrity snappers if Barnardo’s will help with the logistics and advise both the photographers and the children so that expectations are carefully controlled and errors of judgement or bad practice are avoided.
