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ART
& COMMUNITY SERIES IV Sept 12 - Nov 6, 2022 Opening Reception: |
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The
following events will accompany the exhibition:
During the span of the show there will be a book drive to collect reading materials for prisoners. Dictionaries; African American, Native American and Latino American studies books; how-to draw and paint; meditation, yoga and books in Spanish can be dropped off at the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery in collection boxes designed by Prisoners from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility (CFCF). |
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The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery is pleased to announce the fourth exhibition in its Art & Community Exhibition Series. This exhibition series features organizations that use art and the creative process in unique and compelling ways to instill and/or enhance a sense of community under adverse conditions.
Art & Community IV:
Creativity in Confinement is an exhibition featuring artwork
by prisoners from the "Contexts" collection of Books Through
Bars, an organization that sends quality reading material to prisoners
in the United States. Books through Bars is a non-profit, collectively
run group dedicated to promoting prisoner rights and alternatives to the
current system of incarceration.
The Esther M. Klein Gallery exhibition will feature the work of over 50
individuals, all imprisoned at the time they created their pieces. They
have donated their artwork to the "Contexts" collection in exchange
for the opportunity to be seen and heard by the general public. The exhibition
will encompass work from a wide range of media including pencil, watercolor,
oil, acrylic, mixed media, collage and sculpture. The Esther M. Klein
Art Gallery will facilitate the installation of work by F.W. Flores, who
is imprisoned in Texas and has sent to the gallery several art proposals.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Books Through Bars will be having a book drive to collect materials on the topics most requested by prisoners: every kind of dictionary, reference books, African American studies, Native American studies, Latino American studies, how-to draw and paint, vocational and GED material, meditation, yoga and books in Spanish. Drop-off boxes designed and decorated by inmates from Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility (CFCF) will serve as interactive sculptural components of the exhibit installation. Books can be dropped off at the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery during the span of the exhibit.
Through a partnership with the Mural Arts Program and White Dog Café several community events and activities are scheduled to accompany Creativity in Confinement. These events include a gallery talk and slide presentation by Phyllis Kornfeld, distinguished scholar on prison art and author of Cell Block Visions; a Mural Arts Program guided tour to Graterford State Penitentiary followed by a White Dog Café "Table Talk" event focusing on Prison Art.
The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery will also partner with Eastern State Penitentiary in promoting a Secret Cinema screening, "We Who Are About To Die" (1937, Dir. Christy Cabanne) which stars John Beal as an innocent man convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He learns the grim reality of life on death row, where each condemned man waits his turn on the gallows.
The artists featured in this
show are or were among the 2 million people imprisoned in federal, state
and county facilities around the United States. Books Through Bars encourages
creative dialog on the criminal justice system, thereby educating those
living inside and outside our prison walls. By developing this exhibition
initiative, Books Through Bars and the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery intend
to open up a creative discussion on the criminal justice system today.