prison art + aethetics project (PAAP)
Organizers
Lead Organizations
The Prison Art + Aesthetics Project (PAAP) is an 18-month series of symposia, art exhibitions, poetry readings, plays, concerts, and other art events focused on the transdisciplinary aesthetics of prison art in the U.S. and elsewhere. Prison art encompasses four overlapping areas:
Art before prison (e.g., education, social support, employment)
Art during prison (e.g., art programs, independent art activities, educational programs)
Art after prison (e.g., reentry/reintegration, parole, voting)
Art beyond prison (e.g., alternatives to incarceration, restorative models of justice, abolition).
- Michael Kelly, Philosophy, UNC Charlotte; & President, Transdisciplinary Aesthetics Foundation
- Annabel Manning, Social-Practice Artist & Educator
- Lisa Schubert, VP, Programming and External Affairs, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
- Isaac Scott, Pastor, Artist & Human Rights Activist; Founder and Artistic Director, The Confined Arts
Lead Organizations
- Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine; The Confined Arts; Transdisciplinary Aesthetics Foundation Collaborators
- Broadway Advocacy Coalition; Center for Justice, Columbia University
The Prison Art + Aesthetics Project (PAAP) is an 18-month series of symposia, art exhibitions, poetry readings, plays, concerts, and other art events focused on the transdisciplinary aesthetics of prison art in the U.S. and elsewhere. Prison art encompasses four overlapping areas:
Art before prison (e.g., education, social support, employment)
Art during prison (e.g., art programs, independent art activities, educational programs)
Art after prison (e.g., reentry/reintegration, parole, voting)
Art beyond prison (e.g., alternatives to incarceration, restorative models of justice, abolition).
To appreciate the importance of prison art, we need only remember Frederick Douglass’s philosophy of art, where he speaks about the role of art in the slave abolition movement: “All wishes, all aspirations, all hopes, all doubts, all determinations grow stronger and stronger precisely in proportion as they get themselves expressed in words, forms, colours, and actions.” “Poets, prophets, and reformers...see what ought to be by the reflection of what is, and endeavor to remove the contradiction.” From the start, prison art is activism.
PAAP’s concrete goals are (1) to identify, showcase, and sustain the artistic capabilities of people presently or formerly in the criminal justice system or at risk of being ensnared by it; (2) to cultivate, through the arts, “engaged responsibility” among all of us for transforming the criminal justice system, primarily in the U.S.; and (3) to develop new forms of community-university collaborative research for individuals committed to these two goals. Throughout, our purpose is to impact public perception and policy about the criminal justice system, insisting that “dignity for all” be a guiding spiritual principle as we critique and transform the system.
PAAP’s concrete goals are (1) to identify, showcase, and sustain the artistic capabilities of people presently or formerly in the criminal justice system or at risk of being ensnared by it; (2) to cultivate, through the arts, “engaged responsibility” among all of us for transforming the criminal justice system, primarily in the U.S.; and (3) to develop new forms of community-university collaborative research for individuals committed to these two goals. Throughout, our purpose is to impact public perception and policy about the criminal justice system, insisting that “dignity for all” be a guiding spiritual principle as we critique and transform the system.
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