"How Art Changed the Prison: The Work of CPA's Prison Arts Program"

How Art Changed the Prison presents visual art made in Connecticut’s correctional institutions over the past three decades, borrowed from current and former inmates, private collections, including that of the curator, and from the permanent collection of the Prison Arts Program, which is part of Community Partners in Action (CPA), a non-profit that focuses on behavioral change of both current and past inmates of Connecticut’s prison system, in addition to advocating for criminal justice reform. Organized by Jeffrey Greene, who has been with the program for twenty-seven years. Connecticut’s Prison Arts Program is unique due to Greene’s radical approach that rejects art as an activity pursued through academic exercises, but rather an expansive and integrative pursuit that focuses on giving voice to inner worlds and personal histories, and the belief that learning and growth are primarily achieved by the making of art, not by learning technique. Produced on the occasion of the exhibition at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in 2019, this catalogue features an introduction by Exhibitions Director Richard Klein, and an essay and select artist profiles by Jeffrey Greene.