There is more creative spirit and talent among incarcerated people than you might think.

Check out the special exhibition of artworks by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists at MoMA PS1 in New York. Concluding April 4, the exhibition can be viewed virtually through the Bloomberg Connects app. Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration is the product of 35 artists – each of whom has experienced the prison system. You can read a review by Griffin Oleynick here.

Image credit: Tameca Cole, ‘Locked in a Dark Calm,’ 2016
(Collection Ellen Driscoll/Courtesy of MoMa PS1)

Two of our Hope-Western Prison Education Program students are talented visual artists. Here are a few examples of their work.

Image Credit: Alvin Smith, ‘Full Service’ 2020.

These two works were created as part of a final project in Professor Pam Bush’s Communicating With Courage and Compassion course, and summarize the student-artists’ transformation through non-violent communication:

Image Credit: Alvin Smith, ‘So What I Hear You Saying Is…’ 2020.
Image credit: Loren Key, ‘Toma & Range‘ 2020. (This is the first panel of a multi-panel graphic short story. Note the anchor-themed belt buckle.)

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2 Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing the artistic talents of students in the Hope-Western Prison program. They and others are certainly devoting prison time in productive ways as education students whose gifts can be engaged and, in so doing, can offer hope and worth as people created and loved by God. This program helps unlock hidden talents and perhaps insecurities that are now helping turn the tide in better ways. PTL for all He is going through this wonderful program, Rich!
    Blessings,
    Carole

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