‘Get Britain Breastfeeding’ Art Exhibition – Press Preview, VIP Reception and announcement of winners: Thursday, 1st May 2008, 6.30pm

Public Opening: 2nd – 11th May 2008 from 10am – 7pm

Dray Walk Gallery, the Old Truman Brewery, off Dray Walk, Brick Lane, London E1 6QL

Get Britain Breastfeeding is a prestigious art exhibition, produced by the charity Best Beginnings in partnership with NHS London, D&AD and Dr William Wynn-Jones. It will showcase the finished artwork of two exciting competitions with iconic designs that will inspire, celebrate and change perceptions surrounding breastfeeding to engage parents of tomorrow.

The exhibition, hosted at the vibrant and eclectic Old Truman Brewery in east London, opens with a VIP reception at 6.30pm on 1st May 2008 to an eminent group of people from the worlds of art, health and media.

Last October, Best Beginnings launched a poster competition for students at Central St. Martin’s School of Art and Design. At the VIP Reception, the competition winners will be presented with their cheque prize. The overall winners have been offered a 2-week work placement at leading advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO. The winning poster will be co-branded with Best Beginnings and the NHS logo and will be distributed free in hospitals, community centres and GP practices throughout the UK. The poster will promote a DVD made by Best Beginnings and sponsored by the Department of Health, NHS Health Scotland and Welsh Health Promotion Agency. The DVD, “Breastfeeding: the ultimate gift”, has been made to inspire and enable women to breastfeed and will be distributed free to every pregnant woman in the UK from July 2008.

Best Beginnings launched the second competition in partnership with D&AD, the educational charity whose mission is to promote and encourage creative excellence. Fledgling creatives often cite winning a coveted ‘Yellow Pencil’ as the tipping point in launching their successful careers.

D&AD worked with Best Beginnings to write a brief for students taking part in their internationally respected competition. Over 400 students from all over the world have produced postcard sized designs promoting breastfeeding. The winner will be announced on June 26th at the D&AD Student Awards ceremony. The ‘Get Britain Breastfeeding Exhibition’ will be a unique opportunity to see a selection of the entries.

More recently Best Beginnings has teamed up with NHS London, the Healthy Schools Programme and Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust to ensure that significant numbers of secondary-age school children will have the opportunity to enjoy and learn from the exhibition in the lead up to Breastfeeding Awareness week (12th-19th May 2008).

Visitors will be invited to develop a greater knowledge and appreciation of what babies need for a healthy start in life. During the exhibition, breastfeeding counsellors and peer support workers will be available to raise awareness and point people to local breastfeeding support services. There will also be preview extracts from Best Beginnings forthcoming DVD, “Breastfeeding: the ultimate gift”.

Editors notes:

At its heart, the Get Britain Breastfeeding exhibition is designed to drive a positive cultural shift where breastfeeding becomes the norm, not the exception, so that the UK becomes a society where women are supported to breastfeed for as long as they wish.

Breastfeeding has many well established benefits to both mother and child – for example a breastfed baby is five times less likely to end up in hospital with gastroenteritis and is protected, in later life, against obesity, diabetes and some cancers. Breastfeeding is a natural safety net against the worst effects of child poverty. Breastfed babies from younger and poorer families have health outcomes better than or similar to formula fed children in the wealthiest group. Our nation’s health would significantly improve if more women breastfed their infants. It helps, for example, to reduce the childhood admission to hospital from respiratory & gastro-intestinal infections. Despite government and WHO recommendations at present, less than 2% of UK mothers exclusively breastfeed to six months.

The original concept for the Central Saint Martin’s competition came from Dr William Wynn-Jones, a young doctor working in London. He approached Alison Baum, CEO of Best Beginnings and discovered that they were united in their desire to use art to engage the next generation and challenge attitudes and perceptions about breastfeeding. Dr Wynn-Jones joined forces with Best Beginnings to make the idea of the competition into a reality.

Competition prizes are: 1st prize £1,000 and 2 weeks work placement at leading advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, 2nd prize £500, and 3rd prize £250. To learn more about the competition and watch YouTube clips, visit www.getbritainbreastfeeding.org.uk.

Best Beginnings, (www.bestbeginnings.info), is a charity set up to breakdown inequalities in child-health in the UK, by creating targeted resources for families and healthcare professionals. In the UK, there are many babies born to younger, poorer parents and those from certain ethnic minorities who are disproportionately prone to being born prematurely, suffering serious illnesses, developmental disorders, still-births and deaths in early infancy. The nationwide gap is huge; for instance, Bradford-born babies are six times more likely to die in their infancy than in Hampshire. The initial focus of Best Beginnings is breastfeeding as a powerful tool to break-down health inequalities in children. The Breastfeeding DVD, which will be available in six languages, will be given to every pregnant woman (over 600,000 women a year) across Britain from July 2008.

NHS London, London Regional Public Health group recently employed Francesca Entwistle as the Regional Infant Feeding Co-ordinator for London. Francesca is a midwife with over 25 years experience of practice, education and research and one of the first regional infant feeding co-ordinators for England. This innovative post ensures that breastfeeding has a strategic focus across London, working directly with the Department of Health.

D&AD is a not-for-profit educational charity that represents the global creative, design and advertising communities. Since 1962, D&AD has set industry standards, educated and inspired the next generation and, more recently, has demonstrated the impact of creativity and innovation on enhancing business performance. D&AD Global Awards are examples of the biggest and best designs, rewarding outstanding creativity, mould-breaking thinking and the highest standard of design and innovation. Each year D&AD invests around £2 million running 18 different education programmes providing support for universities and colleges and their students and graduates, as well as working on behalf of the international creative community to bridge the gap between education and the workplace.

The Old Truman Brewery has generously given us the exhibition space at a significantly discounted price to enable Best Beginnings to host the event at this prestigious and vibrant arts venue.

For more information and images, please contact Project Director and PR alison_johnson@talk21.com on 07976 529 853.