Art can help build stronger, safer communities and serve as a bridge to employment, education, and therapeutic opportunities.
Through partnerships with artists, arts institutions, and community-based arts organizations, we operate art-based programming in all five boroughs. From photography, theater, and spoken word, to music production, mural creation, songwriting, graphic design, and video game design, drawing on the arts allows clients and community members to express themselves and connect to others, learn new skills, and consider different viewpoints.
Arts provides an engaging entry point for clients who may mistrust justice interventions or be reluctant to acknowledge accountability. Our arts-based programming—both one-time experiences and long-term programming for voluntary and court-mandated clients—are led by teaching artists, art activists, and social workers all with the goal of helping community members get to know each other, creating opportunities for personal reflection, increasing hope for personal and community change, and the provision of concrete skills for school or work. Additionally, arts can be levers for civic engagement and community strengthening—block parties, talent shows, and theatrical productions can provide opportunities to address complex issues and support meaningful dialogue.
A brief, moving excerpt from the recent award ceremony at the New York Public Library announcing the inaugural winner of the Inside Literary Prize, the first major U.S. book award to be judged exclusively by people who are incarcerated.
Hear from Freedom Reads founder and CEO Reginald Dwayne Betts, and from this year’s winner…
The Inside Literary Prize is the first major U.S. book award judged by people who are incarcerated, some of the most prolific readers in the country. Yet the walls we erect around incarcerated people also disappear them from conversations about culture, politics, history—conversations to which they can make vital contributions. On New Thinking, hear a behind-the-scenes portrait of a day of judging in Minnesota's Shakopee women's prison.
An alternative to the traditional system, Project Reset has looked to innovate again by partnering with arts institutions to create meaningful arts-based programming. Project Reset’s partnerships with the New Museum and the Brooklyn Museum are the latest chapter in a longer history of work in the arts.
Meaning, joy, and beauty are at the heart of safe communities. Take a look at some recent design projects we've supported to reinvent public spaces, build community, and encourage hope and healing through self-expression.
More than 200 people in prisons across the nation voted on one book to win the inaugural Inside Literary Prize. At a ceremony in New York, Imani Perry accepted the award alongside other shortlisted authors.
