Many artists enjoy using their talent to give back to others and,
for some, such enjoyment is gained by participating in some of the many
prison-arts programs throughout the country.
by Daniel Grant
Teaching art isn’t for everyone, and teaching art to prisoners
probably appeals to even less people. “It took me three years to get
used to walking through cell blocks without having butterflies in my
stomach,” says Lynne Vantriglia, an artist who has taught male and
female inmates at prisons in Florida and South Carolina through Art
Behind Bars, a volunteer program she founded in 1994. Eventually,
however, Vantriglia lost those butterflies and soon began enjoying the
experience. “The inmates are always so appreciative that you’re doing
something for them,” she says. “There aren’t many productive activities
for them to do, and sometimes this is the only positive experience they
will have.”
Vantriglia is not alone, as more and more artists are venturing into
jails and prisons, gaining teaching experience and striving to make a
difference. One of the benefits of these types of programs is that
inmates are acquiring skills and discipline that may offer an avenue of
self-expression other than violence. Other related events, such as
prison art exhibitions, provide inmates with a feeling of self-worth
and accomplishment. “People who do well in art classes gain confidence
and take other classes, which is important because most inmates have
very little education,” says Rachel Marie-Crane Williams, a painter and
art professor at the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, who has taught
in prisons since the early 1990s. “These skills offer other outlets for
anger and motivate them to change their lives.”
Still, many artists who participate in such programs are questioned
about the safety—and the necessity—of bringing art into prisons. Like
Vantriglia, Williams recalls feeling apprehensive during her first time
teaching these classes but says she quickly got over it, preferring
inmates to some other students in less restrictive settings. “I’ve
never had any physical threats,” says Grady Hillman, a poet and the
president of Southwest Correctional Art Network, which places artists
of various disciplines in prisons. “I’ve encountered my share of
sociopaths, but it’s no worse than teaching in a junior high school.”
Other artists defend prisoners’ human rights. “You can’t just throw
them away and forget about them,” Williams says. “Whatever they may
have done, they are still human beings, who need to be treated as such
and given creative things to do.” Susan Wolfe, a painter from Wichita,
Kansas, who has taught inmates inside the Hutchinson Correctional
Facility, in Hutchinson, Kansas, for a number of years, counters
criticism of her work in the penitentiary by quoting a biblical verse.
“The Bible says we should minister to people in prisons,” she says.
Jane Golden, a muralist and the director of the Healing Walls Project
of the Philadelphia-based Mural Arts Program, defends her involvement
in prison-arts programs by pointing to the power of art. “When these
individuals are involved in something that gives back, they start to
figure out how to reconstruct their lives,” she says. “Art can play a
significant role in their rehabilitation.”
Before entering a prison, artists are given a certain amount of
training, either from a sponsoring organization or from prison
officials. Prison rules are quite strict for a reason, and artists need
to maintain a structured environment even though they are encouraging
self-expression in their classes. A limited number of supplies may be
brought in or supplied by the prison—nothing with sharp points (such as
scissors), nothing with toxic odors (such as oil-paint mediums),
nothing that must be assembled and disassembled—and each item is likely
to be counted at the beginning and end of a given class. Not all
prisons follow the same security rules, but in almost all cases, safety
is a top concern.
Classes may last from 90 minutes to five hours—depending on the
project inmates are working on—and take place one or more times per
week. In most instances, artists are paid by a sponsoring organization,
a particular prison, or a government agency, at the rate of between $35
and $50 per hour (although some artists also go in as volunteers).
Auburn University, in Alabama, Brown University, in Rhode Island, and
the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, run prison-arts programs in
which students are sent into correctional facilities as teachers for
school credit.
Opportunities abound for artists to work in
correctional institutions. There are currently 5,000 or so jails
(short-term incarceration) and prisons (long-term) around the United
States, one-fifth of which have art programs. In most cases, jails tend
to offer fewer classes than prisons because of the more rapid turnover
of inmates. State and county-bureau correctional facilities are likely
to know of private programs that place artists in prisons, and many
correctional institutions have their own recreation and treatment
director who works with outside groups or arranges to bring in
individuals to teach.
The Arts in Criminal Justice National Conference, hosted by the Mural Arts Program, will take place October 3 through October 6 in Philadelphia. For more information, visit www.muralarts.org.
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