Drawing Connections …at the edges: Arts in Prisons

Further Reading & Resources

Imprisonment, Lockdown, Creativity for Wellness and Learning Together

What’s so good about participation? Politics, ethics and love in Learning Together
Ruth Armstrong, Amy Ludlow
First Published June 22, 2020
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2059799120927339

Collaboration before collaborative research: The development of ‘Distant Voices’
Fergus McNeill, Alison Urie
First Published July 1, 2020
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2059799120937270

Values in Frontline Work
A Fabtic interview with Roz Morrison, former Assistant Chief Probation Officer
https://www.museumofcambridge.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/fabtic-newsletter-July-2020.pdf

Righting Wrongs: The Need for Dialogue
Fergus McNeill, Professor of Criminology & Social Work
https://www.museumofcambridge.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Fergus-McNeill-Righting-Wrongs-The-need-for-dialogue.pdf

Transitional Advice During Covid-19
Chris Leslie
https://www.insideout.wales/transitional-advice-during-covid-19/

How Art Can Break Down Barriers
Dr Alyce Mahone looks at the Sadean imagination in great detail, and its political role across the 20th century
https://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/news/reflection-how-art-can-break-down-barriers/

Buckland’s Folly, your grandkids’ debt
Julian Le Vay: Thoughts on Government
https://www.julianlevay.com/articles/bucklands-folly-your-grandkids-debt

Disgust, disdain and suspicion: Some obstacles to desistance
Rob Canton, from Talking about punishment: Trying to raise standards of debates about criminal punishment
https://rcanto00.our.dmu.ac.uk/2020/07/12/disgust-disdain-and-suspicion-some-obstacles-to-desistance/

Access to the arts is a human right, for prisoners as for students
Emma Gilby, senior lecturer in French in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics at the University of Cambridge
https://psyche.co/ideas/access-to-the-arts-is-a-human-right-for-prisoners-as-for-students

Drawing Connections… at the Edges: an Online Exhibition at the Museum of Cambridge
Written ahead of, but published to coincide with the launch, this is a blog post written to introduce the exhibition:
https://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/about/news/drawing-connections-at-the-edges-an-online-exhibition-at-the-museum-of-cambridge/

Sunshine and Fresh Air
Rebecca Lindum Greene writes about her residency at the High Security Prison, HMP Whitemoor, in May-August 2018
https://www.museumofcambridge.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sunshine-and-fresh-air.pdf
It is also discussed in the exhibition launch live stream https://www.facebook.com/museumofcambridge/videos/271441230622690/

Websites

Fair Checks petition
A fresh start for the criminal records system
Hosted by Transform Justice, a national charity working for a fair, humane, open and effective justice system
https://www.fairchecks.org.uk/

Restorative Engagement Forum
Providing training, facilitation and consultancy in restorative practices and restorative justice
http://restorativeengagementforum.com

Irene Taylor Trust and Kestrel Theatre
Drawing Connections collaborated with the Irene Taylor Trust and Kestrel Theatre on the Panto produced in HMP Springhill in 2019 ‘Rio’s Extraordinary Christmas’;  they selected the Lino artwork which had been created by one of our resident participants for their CD release of the music created for the performance: https://soundcloud.com/ittmusic/sets/rios-extraordinary-christmas
Please do check out their websites to see the brilliant work they do: https://kestreltheatrecompany.co.uk
https://irenetaylortrust.com

Geese Theatre Company
Geese Theatre Company is a team of theatre practitioners who present interactive theatre and facilitate drama-based groupwork, staff training and consultation for the probation service, prisons, young offender institutions, youth offending teams, secure hospitals and related agencies throughout the UK and abroad. Check out the research page on their website to find out more about the methodology that informs their work and to read reports and evaluations written about the work they’ve delivered.
http://www.geese.co.uk/research

Once I had begun looking in to Arts in Prisons, a whole new world was revealed to me:

From the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance which acts as an arts engagement branch of the Clinks organisation, supporting voluntary organisations in the Criminal Justice System https://www.clinks.org to Koestler Arts https://www.koestlerarts.org.uk which coordinates mentorships and many brilliant projects and exhibitions for people in secure settings up and down the country. You may have heard about their annual exhibition in The Royal Festival Hall, London which has been curated by a wide range of well respected Artists from Grayson Perry, Sarah Lucas, Benjamin Zephaniah, Antony Gormley, Speech Debelle, Soweto Kinch, along with the families of prisoners, victims of crime, serving female prisoners and graduates of our mentoring programmes.

– do check them out!”

Rebecca Lindum Greene