The non-profit William James Association (WJA), based in Santa Cruz, California, promotes work service in the arts, environment, education, and community development.
One of its programs is the Prison Arts Project, which is dedicated to providing arts experiences to incarcerated individuals in the belief that participation in the artistic process positively affects one’s self concept and one’s relationship with the world.
My documentary project focuses on one instance of Prison Arts Project — the Arts in Corrections program at San Quentin State Prison.
Inmate musicians, painters, printmakers, and dramatists share the art room, a 20×40-foot high-ceilinged box with nice light filtering in through bars and barbed wire. Only the writers, who don’t need specialized materials, work separately in a classroom.
This art room is a sanctuary for the handful of inmates who maintain, through good behavior, the privilege of participating in one of the arts programs. In my experience the inmates are quite appreciative of the opportunity they have, and take it seriously. A couple of the program’s professional artist/teachers, who have taught at art schools and universities, have said these are the most dedicated and motivated art students they have ever taught.
In my numerous visits to the program, its participants have been unfailingly respectful, gracious, and solicitous toward me. They realize my photographs are used to promote and raise funds for their program, and they are most appreciative. They greet me with a smile and a handshake when I arrive, and eagerly carry my equipment up and down stairs. Toward each other they are supportive, generous, and light-heartedly humorous; the more advanced students mentor the beginners. A number of the program’s participants have described their experience in this program as transformative — as a turning point in their lives; a few of the most talented ones, having completed their sentences, are now supporting themselves as artists on the outside.
