Judith Tannenbaum

Please visit a wonderful new blog site that allows people sharing art-making in prison (or any corrections or post-release setting to share information about programs and resources, as well as to post blogs about the work.

The group that worked on this blog site is in the process of developing what we need (mission statement, etc) to create an actual Prison Arts Coalition entity. We hope to find funding that will allow in-person gatherings as well as other ways to share the work we're all doing. We'll post whatever we come up with on the blog site.

Phyllis Kornfeld, author of Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America, sent the link to a wonderful essay she wrote (the piece includes beautiful images of work done by people in prison). Phyllis writes about how she thinks of her work:

"'Art Teacher' didn't seem the right job description after a few weeks of working behind bars. Some of the men and women had already created strikingly fresh work without benefit of an art program or decent materials.

"Teaching the conventional principals, techniques, and subject matter—in other words, what was taught to me—not only seemed irrelevant, but that such an approach was likely to put a lid on the intense yearning to create what was obvious, and poignant, in most of the people who came to my classes."