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| BROKEN
:: DARYL YOUNG |
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INSTITUTIONALIZED
ENSLAVEMENT ::
LATIF ASAD ABDULLAH |
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| SITTING
BULL :: ED CHAPARRO |
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| THE
ROAD TO PERDITION :: MICHAEL CAMARENA |
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Friday, September
12, 8:00pm
Secret
Cinema screening at Eastern
State Penitentiary
We Who Are About to Die (1937, Dir: Christy Cabanne) |
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Friday, October
24, 8:00pm
FREE Secret
Cinema screening at Esther Klein Art Gallery
Canon City (1948, Dir: Crane Wilber) |
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Saturday, November
1, 8:30am
Mural
Arts Tour of Graterford Prison Mural Project* |
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Sunday, November
2, 11:30am
The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery: Free lecture by Phyllis
Kornfeld,
Author of the book, Cellblock
Visions: Prison Art in America |
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Monday, November
3, 5:30pm
White
Dog Café, Table Talk with Phyllis Kornfeld* |
*For reservations on these events call
White Dog Café at 215.386.9224
The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery is pleased to announce the fourth
exhibition in its Art & Community Exhibition Series. This
exhibition series features organizations that use art and the
creative process in unique and compelling ways to instill and/or
enhance a sense of community under adverse conditions.
Art & Community IV: Creativity in Confinement is an exhibition
featuring artwork by prisoners from the "Contexts"
collection of Books Through Bars, an organization that sends
quality reading material to prisoners in the United States.
Books through Bars is a non-profit, collectively run group dedicated
to promoting prisoner rights and alternatives to the current
system of incarceration.
The Esther M. Klein Gallery exhibition will feature the work
of over 50 individuals, all imprisoned at the time they created
their pieces. They have donated their artwork to the "Contexts"
collection in exchange for the opportunity to be seen and heard
by the general public. The exhibition will encompass work from
a wide range of media including pencil, watercolor, oil, acrylic,
mixed media, collage and sculpture. The Esther M. Klein Art
Gallery will facilitate the installation of work by F.W. Flores,
who is imprisoned in Texas and has sent to the gallery several
art proposals.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Books
Through Bars will be having a book drive to collect materials
on the topics most requested by prisoners: every kind of dictionary,
reference books, African American studies, Native American studies,
Latino American studies, how-to draw and paint, vocational and
GED material, meditation, yoga and books in Spanish. Drop-off
boxes designed and decorated by inmates from Curran-Fromhold
Correctional Facility (CFCF) will serve as interactive sculptural
components of the exhibit installation. Books can be dropped
off at the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery during the span of the
exhibit.
Through a partnership with the Mural Arts Program and White
Dog Café several community events and activities are
scheduled to accompany Creativity in Confinement. These events
include a gallery talk and slide presentation by Phyllis Kornfeld,
distinguished scholar on prison art and author of Cell Block
Visions; a Mural Arts Program guided tour to Graterford State
Penitentiary followed by a White Dog Café "Table
Talk" event focusing on Prison Art.
The Esther M. Klein Art Gallery will also partner with Eastern
State Penitentiary in promoting a Secret Cinema screening, "We
Who Are About To Die" (1937, Dir. Christy Cabanne) which
stars John Beal as an innocent man convicted of murder and sentenced
to death. He learns the grim reality of life on death row, where
each condemned man waits his turn on the gallows.
The artists featured in this show are or were among the 2 million
people imprisoned in federal, state and county facilities around
the United States. Books Through Bars encourages creative dialog
on the criminal justice system, thereby educating those living
inside and outside our prison walls. By developing this exhibition
initiative, Books Through Bars and the Esther M. Klein Art Gallery
intend to open up a creative discussion on the criminal justice
system today.
Click
here to read some Artist-Prisoners Quotes
Opening Reception
Friday, September 12,
5:30pm - 7:00pm
Philadelphia
Weekly (Pdf, 124Kb)
Delaware
Online Entertainment (Pdf, 448Kb)
KYW
News (Pdf, 412Kb) |
