ARTS in corrections
Creative expression is freeing
Arts education is an essential tool for healthy human development and lifelong learning that must be made available to all. Providing people experiencing incarceration access to the arts has an immediate, direct, and positive impact on their personal health and welfare, as well as their surroundings.
Administered by the California Arts Council in partnership with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, California's Arts in Corrections program is internationally recognized for its high-impact, innovative approach to addressing the state's critical public safety needs and rehabilitative priorities through the arts.
To help sustain our traditional arts and support ACTA, please visit http://www.actaonline.org/support.
Video: Alliance for California Traditional Arts, California Correctional Institution
“We’re talking about mental health impacts, about restorative and transformative processes. This provides a pathway towards healing, and this is what we have to do in these spaces. We have to facilitate healing in a very holistic way.” – Quetzal Flores, Arts Instructor
Arts in Corrections is a partnership between CDCR, the California Arts Council, and the Fresno Arts Council to combat recidivism, enhance rehabilitative goals, and improve the safety and environment at Valley State Prison.
Video: Fresno Arts Council, Valley State Prison
"I believe in rehabilitation; it is crucial. Today's inmate may be tomorrow's neighbor." – Carmen Maroney, Community Resources Manager, Valley State Prison
Meet the incarcerated thespians and find out why they're involved with Shakespeare while in prison. Since 2003, Marin Shakespeare Company has offered weekly Shakespeare classes at San Quentin Prison, culminating in an annual performance of a Shakespeare play. The men also write and perform autobiographical theatre pieces inspired by their work with Shakespeare.
Video: Marin Shakespeare Company, San Quentin State Prison
"Character development is important to acting and adulthood. So as I continue to develop as an actor, and as a person of integrity, accountability, and responsibility—traits I'll be defined by long after the show is over—it's through drama therapy and Shakespeare that I find healing." – Nythell "Nate" Collins, Incarcerated Individual at San Quentin State Prison
MyCreativeCA #CAarts40 www.arts.ca.gov Fact: Most prison inmates are eventually released. Tim Robbins' Actors Gang Prison Project is sending them home with changed attitudes and new problem-solving skills. We're proud to partner with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to support this important, life-changing work.
Video: Actors' Gang Prison Project, California Institution for Women
“Wouldn't you want a person in prison to come out with better skills in dealing with disappointment, obstacles, unemployment, when they come out? It seems to me that it's in all of our interests to have vigorous rehabilitation programs—and arts is absolutely essential to that." – Tim Robbins, Artistic Director