Katie Manning's Inspiring Cleft Exhibition in London

On Saturday 1 October, Katie Manning, artist and mother of three from Oxford, hosted an art workshop and exhibition in support of Smile Train UK, the international children’s cleft charity.

The workshop and exhibition, which featured Katie’s collection of hand-drawn portraits of children with clefts, took place at The LightHouse & Gardens in Stratford, London. The workshop was donation-led, with all proceeds going to Smile Train UK.

Coined a ‘morning of creativity’, Katie’s workshop was an opportunity for the local community to celebrate smiles and facial differences through a variety of art activities in a social environment – encouraging conversation around and raising awareness of clefts. Guests were encouraged to try their hand at portrait skills, mark making, and painting a smile on the hoarding in the Gardens.

During the exhibition in the afternoon, Katie showcased her collection of cleft portraits – the result of a challenge she set herself in 2021. Katie is committed to hand-drawing 100 portraits of babies, children, and adults born with a cleft in the hope that it will help raise awareness and increase knowledge of what clefts are in a creative and powerful way.

Katie, a Smile Train UK ambassador since 2021, was inspired to embark on the artistic adventure following her family’s own experiences of clefts - her eldest daughter was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, and her husband was born with a unilateral cleft.

While supporting her daughter through cleft surgery and subsequent orthodontic work and speech therapy, Katie noticed that there is still a lot of stigma and misunderstanding associated with clefts. This often stems from a lack of awareness and knowledge of what a cleft is and how differently they can impact individuals and their families for entire lifetimes.

Clefts are the most common facial difference globally, affecting around 1 in every 700 babies. In the UK, cleft surgery is usually carried out within the first 12 months of a baby’s life by the National Health Service (NHS). However, there are hundreds of thousands of children living in resource-poor communities worldwide who do not have access to the lifesaving cleft treatment they so desperately need.

Smile Train's sustainable model empowers local medical professionals with training, funding, and resources to provide free cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care to children globally. Since 1999, Smile Train has supported safe and quality cleft care for 1.5+ million children, and will continue to do so until every person in need with a cleft has access to the care they deserve.

Katie Manning said: “I was really excited to host this workshop and exhibition, to not only encourage creativity in the community, but also raise awareness of clefts.

“It’s a privilege to be working with the cleft community, creating beautiful portraits which embody the cleft journey. These are to educate, celebrate, and highlight the need for all of us to take responsibility for how we chose to show up in the world. Since starting to draw cleft portraits, the project has grown beyond my wildest dreams. I have met incredible people from all over the world. I’m now an ambassador for Smile Train UK, which has led me to speak at Cleft Con, Smile Train’s global cleft conference, and recently they invited me to display my portraits at a World Health Organization (WHO) exhibition at the UN in Geneva! Never would I have imagined that I would have had such a powerful reaction to my artwork.

“If sharing my portraits and encouraging conversation around clefts helps Smile Train to continue doing the life-changing work they are doing, I feel honoured to be playing a small part.”

Ian Vallance, Director of Smile Train UK, commented: “We are constantly in awe of Katie’s efforts to raise awareness of Smile Train and the cleft community through her art.

“Not only is she playing a key role in educating the community on the issues surrounding clefts, but she is doing so in a beautiful way through her art – demonstrating that every smile is beautiful.”

Katie also joined Smile Train UK’s Cleft Community Advisory Council in 2021, using lived experience to advise on campaigns and activities. Katie is passionate about the work that Smile Train does and has set up a dedicated Just Giving page in support of the charity.