The Confined Arts in partnership with Another Choice Youth and Family Outreach Awarded Grant to Launch
STRATEGIC ARTS & EDUCATION INITIATIVE (SAE)
ARTISTIC LITERACY, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AND CAPACITY BUILDING
New York, NY— The Ford Foundation has awarded The Confined Arts in partnership with Another Choice Youth and Family Outreach Inc with a grant to launch the Strategic Arts & Education (SAE) initiative to provide free artistic literacy, professional development, and capacity-building to new/existing community-based artists, students, and advocates including justice-impacted people.
PROJECT SUMMARY
The mission of the SAE initiative is to provide free artistic literacy, professional development, and capacity building trainings and workshops to new and existing community-based artists (specifically those that have justice-involvement), young adults, students, advocates, teaching artists, practitioners, legal advocates, and organizations who want to learn more about entrepreneurship, community enhancement and/or how they can use the arts to mitigate the imprint of the criminal legal system.
The mission of the SAE initiative is to provide free artistic literacy, professional development, and capacity building trainings and workshops to new and existing community-based artists (specifically those that have justice-involvement), young adults, students, advocates, teaching artists, practitioners, legal advocates, and organizations who want to learn more about entrepreneurship, community enhancement and/or how they can use the arts to mitigate the imprint of the criminal legal system.
BACKGROUND
In 2020 The Confined Arts partnered with the Center for Court 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 social justice, with a focus on community resilience and prevention through advocacy and reform:
In 2020 The Confined Arts partnered with the Center for Court 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 social justice, 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.
PROJECT GOALS AND OUTCOMES
Goal 1: Provide consistent access to artistic literacy and capacity building trainings for community stakeholders who would not traditionally have access to this information and/or resources.
Goal 2: Offer free artistic literacy and capacity building training for people who are justice-involved and at risk of future re-offending. Goal 3: Promote public safety through community-based interventions via providing free trainings and capacity building tools to offset social inequalities. Goal 4: Produce community-based curricula that is sensitive to the socio-economic conditions and historical trauma of Black and indigenous communities of color. Goal 5: Strengthen the network of artists and organizations participating in the activities of the ARTS JUSTICE SAFETY COALITION. |
Outcome 1: More community-based advocates and entrepreneurs are provided with the tools that they need to become socially and financially sustainable in their personal and professional lives.
Outcome 2: During the re-entry process, equip those returning home with the professional development tools and resources needed to offset recidivism and circumvent the impacts of the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction and assist with the re-entrance into fee life. Outcome 3: Community-based artists and entrepreneurs are better equipped to express themselves, advocate for the needs of their communities, and galvanize resources to address those issues. Outcome 4: Offset inaccessibility to education so that more people in communities of color can obtain additional educational tools and resources that are not traditionally offered. Outcome 5: New and existing artists will be enabled to build their social capital by being connected with a network of industry professionals and community advocates. |
PARTICIPANT REGISTRATION WILL REMAIN OPEN THROUGH 2023
Email inquiries to: mtzionmedia@mountzionamenyc.org, theconfinedarts@gmail.com