I thought it was time to tell you about the Made Visible art project I am firmly involved with. It is a project kindly funded by the National Lottery and is all about shining the spotlight onto prisoner’s art. So how would you feel if you had no voice?
Imagine being banged up
Yep imagine being banged up in an occasionally hostile environment, a tight, rigid regime mixed with regret, remorse, reflection and huge amounts of boredom. Perhaps it might be a time of feeling silenced, shut out of society and without a voice? Will all that change when you rejoin society? We all know the answer is NO.
Maybe this is where art could have some kind of a role?
Made visible
The Made Visible art project is something I’m involved in. The aim is to invite prisoners* to express how they are through some kind of art. They are given an A5 sheet of card and away they go. They could be drawing, painting, scrippling or maybe writing a few words of poetry or something else.
Once we have gathered in all of the entries and judged them, some modest cash prizes will be awarded. It doesn’t stop there. There will be an exhibition in the prison for just a day, followed by a community based exhibition in a few different places. These are local places where the art can be mingled with locally produced art.
Now that’s where there will be an interesting juxtaposition. Will we be able to tell the difference between locally produced art and that from the prison? What if there is no way of telling the difference, what would this mean? Perhaps the prisoners are ordinary people, just like you and me? Maybe.
Or perhaps there will be a difference between the prison and community art. Does that challenge us here in the community? What are the prisoners saying to us? Do we accept that message and, most importantly, as a society do we welcome prisoners as they come to rejoin us?
Whatever the answer, I think we may find ourselves challenged in some way.
*prisoners. I mentioned the word ‘prisoners’ quite a few times. That’s rather like referring to them as ‘criminals’ or ‘offenders’ or any number of negative terms. In the prison the staff are trying to cultivate a community feel which will lead to better conditions for all. Certainly a better atmosphere and where a certain responsibility is shared by all to maintain a good place to live.
If we label people, people live up to the label which we’ve placed on them . So that’s why prisoners are referred to as ‘residents’.