A Creative Solution: Art Practice in California Prisons
Peter Merts | California, United States
Photographer: Peter Merts
Exhibit Title: A Creative Solution: Art Practice in California Prisons
Location: California, United States
This project shows incarcerated men and women creating and performing artworks in California prisons; beyond that, it portrays the passion, creativity, and humanity of those artists.
Upon first hearing of these classes I was intrigued by the incongruity of artistic expression in such a regulated, disruptive, and sometimes violent environment; I also felt an empathy for incarcerated men and women, many of whom had experienced childhood trauma. Beyond these factors, it just felt like a good fit—a project about art as a response to troubled lives.
From the beginning I was impressed with the commitment, risk-taking, enthusiasm, and technical mastery of the artists as they addressed topics of identity, culture, family, and society.
Studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of art practice in improving the attitudes and behaviors of incarcerated men and women, but here I go beyond these empirical matters. My aim is to illuminate the humanity of these incarcerated men and women, who are working so passionately to express themselves, to recover from their traumas, and to lead more fulfilling lives.
For this project, I worked closely with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, who funds these prison art programs; the California Arts Council, the state agency that administers these programs; and numerous county arts councils and arts NGO's, who hire and manage the teaching artists. All of these organizations have used my photos to promote their efforts.
I have now photographed in all 36 adult California state prisons, and have built a large image archive. Photos from this archive were used extensively in a book co-published by me, Paths of Discovery—Art Practice and Its Impact in California Prisons (second edition, 2015). They have also appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Economist, HuffPost, the Guardian, and elsewhere.
Images from this archive were published in a monograph by Daylight Books in June 2022—Ex Crucible: The Passion of Incarcerated Artists.
Alliance for California Traditional Arts, The Actors' Gang, Artistic Ensemble, Arts Council of Kern, Bread & Roses Presents, Dance Kaiso, Fresno Arts Council, Fugitive Kind Theater, Give A Beat, InsideOUT Writers, Jail Guitar Doors, KALW Radio, Marin Shakespeare Company, Muckenthaler Cultural Center, No Joke Theater, Playwrights Project, Prison Arts Collective, Project PAINT, Red Ladder Theatre Company, Riverside Arts Council, TheatreWorkers Project, We Heart Art, and the William James Association
mail@petermerts.com
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