Prison Healing Art Program

It all started when…

..I was listening to Caitlin Cannon, Nashville acclaimed singer songwriter, sing ‘Waiting’, at a fundraiser for the prison Healing Arts program. The the song was about her brother who is serving a life sentence in prison. The song, getting to know Caitlin and working with the Cultural Arts Alliance (CAA),who initiated the program and fund it, has led to me doing a weekly art class at the men’s prison, a program Bradley Copeland started in 2021, Artist of the Year in South Walton 2023.

My secret name for the course is The Trojan Art project, as it is facilitating the class of up to 12 men, to look deeper within - doing that inside re-design, and digging deeper through - art! We don’t focus so much on art per se, but find creative ways to use art techniques and exercises using paint, charcoal etc, to bring healing and inner transformation. Themes include Letting go, Seeing differently, Looking for the silver lining and Taming and befriending the monster within.

I love my Thursdays! It is a totally different world to out here though and I describe going through the security gates as like going through a time portal; everything is different on the inside! And the men so appreciate the respite and peace, the exercises that give them food for thought- and the challenge to take what they find comes up within them , and spills out on the paper, into their daily lives within the wire.

I have also got involved with Caitlin’s songwriter residency at Walton Correctional Institution - which is a whole other story!