Hello Everyone,
Our organization was invited to be part of a county Criminal Justice Advisory Committee that meets monthly. It is a consortium of government and many other entities working together to reduce incarceration levels in our county, study alternatives to incarceration, continue to build rehabilitation programs, better reach youth or people of any age that may be at risk. A few projects in visual art and theater have happened over the years but they were single time events, usually generated completely by the arts organization.
As the one arts entity represented on this group we consider ourselves a placeholder for all of the arts and will be presenting to the group about the role that the arts may play in any/all of these issues. To that end we are researching projects or programs that have been implemented, or are being implemented, that may be helpful as this group works to discover creative approaches. Any type of program idea is welcome - I would say that the group members by and large are not well versed in the potential of the arts to change lives, help people to solve problems, etc., but there are some members that are super interested in learning about how to make a connection with the arts since they want to make real improvements here in criminal justice.
We are casting a broad net in our research to offer information and potential in this new community effort.
Thank you for any information you may be able to provide or projects or programs you can steer us toward.
Happy to share the information if others are interested.
Best regards,
Mary Kramer
mkramer@wabashvalleyartspaces.com
812-235-2801