Castle Fraser, Garden & Estate

The Halpern Charitable Foundation exists to inspire and transform the lives of the broad and diverse audiences of people and communities in Medway and Kent. The Halpern Charitable Foundation was founded in 2002, achieving charitable status in March 2003. It was set up initially to meet three particular aims – to provide affordable space for artists to work and exhibit in Medway; to help people with mental and/or physical illness/disability; and as a backstop for the Chatham Memorial Synagogue, should it ever be in real financial difficulty with no other avenue left. Since then the Foundation has refined and expanded its ideas. We realised that in addition to providing studio and exhibiting space at affordable prices to artists, we needed to help break down the barriers some of the public felt in accessing contemporary arts. We realised that there were a lot of people not being included within the local community and we have found that using the arts to enable these groups is tremendously effective.