The North East has one of the highest rates of drug and alcohol addiction and death or serious illness caused by drug and alcohol addiction in the UK. The area also has a thriving recovery community - Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous run over 100 recovery meetings a week in our region. There is a huge need to educate the public about treatment and recovery. The need and solution are both present. Our project brings them together.

Artists In Recovery curates exhibitions featuring the work of artists in recovery from addiction. It also promotes abstinence based 12 step recovery programmes. The exhibitions give artists a chance to exhibit and sell their work and be involved in a group and community project. The exhibitions give AIR the opportunity to engage with the public regarding addiction and recovery.

Our first exhibition takes place at St Nicholas's Cathedral between the 8th and 23rd September 2018. We have commitment from 10 artists, each producing high quality, provocative and interesting work that will attract an audience of art lovers keen to see art in a fantastic historic, spiritual setting and those keen to find out more about treatment and recovery. We think the exhibition will have particular appeal to the recovery community and their families and hope it will support them in their recovery.

We need a website to publicise our exhibitions, promote the artists and their work and to provide a central resource of information for people looking to escape addiction or help suffering addicts.