SAN BERNARDINO>>The Cal State San Bernardino Prison Arts Collective has organized its second major exhibition at CB1 Gallery in Los Angeles, featuring original artwork from incarcerated artists at six state prisons.
This year’s exhibition, called “Beyond the Blue,” will run from July 22 through Sept. 2, and will include an accompanying series of panel sessions called “Art and Restorative Justice.” The opening events on Saturday, July 22, will include the panel discussion “What’s in a Name” at 3 p.m., and a reception from 4-7 p.m.
The 2017 exhibition follows the program’s well-received 2016 exhibition and accompanying book “Through the Wall: Prison Arts Collective.”
Dozens of paintings, drawings and handmade objects created by participants in the CSUSB Community-based Art (CBA) Prison Arts Collective project will be on display. The art focuses on five themes: Alternative Materiality; Collaboration and Partnerships; Line as Language; Dreams, Imagination and the Surreal; and the Experience of Incarceration.
“Beyond the Blue” seeks to dismantle the stigma of outsider art through the serious consideration of work being produced by CBA participants within correctional facilities.
The exhibition will highlight artwork by those participating at all levels, including participants in advanced classes and those just emerging in their artistic experience.
A majority of works featured have been donated by the artists with the goal of sharing their work with a wider audience and raising funds to support ongoing CBA programming in prisons and in the community. Viewers are invited to participate through a written or visual reflection in a collaborative response book, an informal tour with a teaching artist and/or by purchasing a work of art with all proceeds going directly to support ongoing CBA Prison Arts Collective classes.
All artworks are made by CBA participants in the Prison Arts Collective projects at six state prisons, including the California Institution for Men and the California Institution for Women in Chino; the California State Prison, Los Angeles County in Lancaster; the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco; and the Chuckawalla Valley State Prison and the Ironwood State Prison in Blythe.
Alongside “Beyond the Blue,” the Prison Arts Collective will host a comprehensive series of panel discussions titled “Art and Restorative Justice.” These panels will address issues related to the flourishing of arts in corrections in California, including Art in the Justice System and Art and Healing.
The series will begin at CB1 Gallery with the first panel, “What’s in a Name?” on July 22 at 3 p.m. This panel will interrogate questions surrounding the importance of language and the use of more humanizing nomenclatures for those participating in correctional facility arts programming. How do the various etymological functions perpetuated by institutions impact how we speak about art created by incarcerated participants? Can artwork being produced by incarcerated artists be separated from its source — should it be? What are the power dynamics implicit within these relationships and can they be changed?
This panel will be moderated by Varina Bleil, executive director of the Youth Symphony Orchestra and CBA/PAC advisory council member, and panelists thus far include exhibition co-organizers, Annie Buckley, CSUSB associate professor of art and founding director of CBA, and April Baca, CBA program assistant and USC graduate candidate, artist Alex Kizu, and CBA site lead Jenny Montenegro.