In 2020 The Confined Arts partnered with the Center for Justice Innovation and Conspiring for Good to MAP, GALVANIZE AND SUPPORT artists, arts organizations, projects, and programs focused on racial justice, restorative justice, transformative justice, and Criminal Justice Reform by forming the ARTS JUSTICE SAFETY COALITION. Our goals are: To sustain a community of individuals and organizations working at the intersection of art and justice system reform, with a focus on community resilience and prevention through advocacy and reform:
- To elevate the status of art as a tool for systemic, cultural, and social change and build power among artists who utilize their work to these ends.
- To create lasting change within the criminal legal system by utilizing artist and artistry to identify and demonstrate problems and envision and advocate for solutions.
- To persuasively provide evidence to policy makers and funders that investing in the arts is investing in safety (and to make that statement be true by creating the tools that help folks in the field be able to do that.)
- To create relationships between artists and arts and justice practitioners to learn from each other, create shared language, tools, techniques, and make “ecosystem” progress as our society works for non-punitive responses to trauma.
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This coalition is made up of Arts programs and practitioners working at the intersection of the criminal legal system and integrating safety, accountability and justice into their work. The coalition includes organizations and groups such as (but not limited to):
The Arts, Justice, and safety Coalition will execute its goals by
(but not limited to):
1. Creating a co-learning community
2. Supporting each other in financially sustaining arts and justice work
3. Amplify the work and efforts of arts and justice organizations
(but not limited to):
1. Creating a co-learning community
- Host programs and events to build trust
- Offer Relationship-building Events
- Promote information sharing (toolkits, best practices, updates in the field)
2. Supporting each other in financially sustaining arts and justice work
- Share best practices on scaling your work with limited funding
- Support each other in scaling by burden-sharing when possible
- Explore possibilities for collective fundraising
3. Amplify the work and efforts of arts and justice organizations
- Distribute the findings and successes of member organizations on public platforms and to all members
- Encourage and coordinate; cross-promote each other’s work
We understand that arts organization and practitioners each have different roles, different access and different competing stressors, we work hard to try to embody practices and choices that support the entire ecosystem and not as a pedestal for particular orgs or artists. We also acknowledging the systemic pressures (from living in the capitalist system that make it difficult for us to genuinely powershare) work collaboratively to undo the structures that force us to compete against each other and do the best we can to support those people that have been the most marginalized.
2022-23 POLICY GOAL
Our coalition seeks to advance alternative to incarceration (ATI) possibilities by positioning the arts as a necessary tool in prevention, pre-trial, supervised release, and post-conviction sentencing options by utilizing trauma-informed arts practices to inform public safety strategies and to center the humanity of individuals who are system-impacted. Our policy objective is to:
- diminish the popular narratives and attitudes that drive the punishment paradigm,
- foster collective healing through restorative approaches and,
- Provide capacity building tools for self-advocacy and entrepreneurship.
NATIONAL COALITION BUILDING
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This gathering is a shared initiative between Justice Arts Coalition (JAC) and the Arts Justice Safety Coalition (AJSC). JAC unites artists and allies inside and outside of prison to harness the transformative and liberatory power of the arts to reimagine justice. AJSC was launched in 2020 with the partnership of The Confined Arts, the Center for Court Innovation, and Conspiring for Good, and is made up of art programs and practitioners working at the intersection of art and justice reform to strengthen and sustain community resilience through advocacy and reform.
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