A 1,000 lira note bearing an emotional message has remained folded in Martin’s wallet since a woman he once knew gave it to him in 1985.

The note and a child’s pair of shoes are among the images featured in a powerful exhibition launched this week at Bradford’s Delius Arts and Cultural Centre to mark Alcohol Awareness Week.

Called Also Available In Sober, the exhibition features photography, audio accompaniments and poetry produced by a group of ten people to express their journey to sobriety.

Animation projected on to items on a washing line encapsulates, in a creative way, their emotions and experiences, along with the challenges they face as they deal with life without drink.

The exhibition is a collaboration between Artworks Creative Communities, based at the Delius Centre, and the Piccadilly Project in Bradford.

Suzy Russell, project co-ordinator, says the 12-week Creative Journeys Project involved participants working alongside film-maker and photographer Mick Sugden and creative writer David Nixon.

Established in 1998, Artworks Creative Communities promotes participatory arts for deprived communities. It is commissioned by Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust to provide a series of arts and health programmes tackling health issues such as mental health, confidence and self-esteem to prepare people for work or to reduce stress in caring or having cared for someone.

“We do projects with a lot of different art forms and this has been one of them, and we also try and champion the use of arts as a kind of occupational therapy,” explains Suzy, who says art has proved to be effective in helping stroke survivors regain some communication and movement.

Referring to the Creative Journeys Project, Suzy says: “It gives people a safe place to talk about emotions and feelings. It’s allowing people to disclose what they want to disclose.”

The exhibition explores issues such as identity, and promotes the message that addiction can happen to anyone. “You just don’t know what may tip you over the edge into it. That could happen in life. Anybody who at some time has had an issue with drink or drugs is somebody’s son or brother or sister, we are all humans,” says Suzy.

The exhibition also tackles stigmas and stereotypes and challenges perceptions. “If you are visually perceived as an alcoholic you are not Simon or Ben, you are an alcoholic,” says Suzy.

Martin, a recovering alcoholic, adds: “You are nameless and faceless.”

He talks about the “crushing effect” alcohol addiction can have on lives – the gradual erosion of self-confidence and self-esteem.

Through art, the group were able to express their feelings and emotions about their experiences and their recovery. The theme of ‘new life and new beginnings’ is a strong focus in the exhibition. “Recovery is a process and not an event,” says Martin.

Since embarking on structured day care through the Lifeline Piccadilly Project, he has remained abstinent for more than a year.

He admits that coping with everyday life without alcohol has been tough. “It has had its ups and downs, but one of the things I kept coming back to is that the ups and downs are no more than people experience in ordinary life,” he says.

“I do have to remind myself sometimes of the hundreds and thousands of people dealing with the same ups and downs without actually saying, ‘I’ll throw my life away by drinking myself to death’.”

Martin credits the project for giving him “emotional resilience”, and while he wasn’t interested in art before embarking on the project, he has now discovered a creative side.

“Having seen the finished project it is so good and I am pleased to have had a part in it,” says Martin.

- To find out more about the Lifeline Piccadilly Project, call (01274) 735775. For more information about the Also Available in Sober exhibition, call (01274) 256928.