Please join us for the inaugural gathering to explore the formation of a national collective — a virtual event to create relationships among artists, arts organizations, and arts practitioners to learn from each other, create shared language, and evolve an ecosystem for progress as our society works for non-punitive responses to harm.

This gathering is a shared initiative between Justice Arts Coalition (JAC) and the Arts Justice Safety Coalition (AJSC). JAC unites artists and allies inside and outside of prison to harness the transformative and liberatory power of the arts to reimagine justice. AJSC was launched in 2020 with the partnership of The Confined Arts, the Center for Court Innovation, and Conspiring for Good, and is made up of art programs and practitioners working at the intersection of art and justice reform to strengthen and sustain community resilience through advocacy and reform.

In the words of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “abolition is about presence, not absence.” We rely on each other in this work and cannot maximize the power of the arts in our movement towards abolition without broader synergy. We invite you to join this first meeting where we can discuss new ways of gathering and sharing resources, contribute ideas, and offer feedback to identity goals for a national collective.

To RSVP for this gathering, please register here.