Our Sustaining Members help make the resources and services that JAC provides accessible to all who can benefit from them. We are so grateful for their support. To become a member of JAC, please click here.
Robin McNulty, Project PAINT
Anderson Smith
Alison Kirkegaard
Louis Postel
Elisha Caterisano
Sam Nelson
TJ Matthews
Bruce Levitt, Phoenix Players
The Phoenix Players Theatre Group was founded in 2009 at Auburn Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Auburn New York, by a small group of incarcerated men dedicated to the idea that theatre work, combined with group inner healing work, is a true opportunity for them to connect and to become more fully human.
Richael Faithful
Susan Paul Johnson
Kate Kenney
Cathy Nugent
Hannah Viederman
ID13 Prison Literacy Project
The ID13 Prison Literacy Project is devoted to providing a voice, an outlet, and a platform for incarcerated individuals at various correctional institutions in the state of Ohio. ID13 is dedicated to meeting participant needs through weekly writing workshops and publication opportunities. ID13 was founded by Halle Neiderman and Christopher P. Dum of Kent State University in the summer of 2016. As educators, researchers, and activists, Neiderman and Dum are motivated by the philosophy that every person has the right to literacy and voices should never be silenced.
Leia Squillace
Contact: leia.squillace@gmail.com
Anthony Peyton Porter
Tsukumo Niwa
Contact: tniwa@outlook.com
Rosita Hopper
Contact: hoppcomm@gmail.com
Nancy Yamahiro
Contact: nyamahiro@gmail.com
Bridget Berrigan
Artist with Berry Potpourri
David Jolliffe
University Tour Coordinator at the Prison Story Project Prison Stories III, IV, and V were performed to standing room only audiences. Everyone who participates as a guest artist with Prison Stories volunteers their time to this important work. It costs approximately $2,500 for each 4 month session. Prison Stories uses donations from staged readings, or in grant funding, or in-kind donations (printing, notepads, pens, books, etc) to pay stipends to the artists and actresses who bring the sacred stories of the incarcerated women we serve to life. If you would like to participate in upcoming sessions with either your time, talent or financial contribution, please contact them!
Susan Russell
Jeannie Thompson, Alabama Writers’ Forum
The Alabama Writers’ Forum, Inc., is a statewide literary arts organization and partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts. One of our longest running arts education programs is Writing Our Stories, a collaborative program with the Alabama Department of Youth Services. We place teaching writers in their school district. The program has been in existence since 1997 and we have published more than 70 anthologies of student work. Contact: writersforum@bellsouth.net
Julie McNiel
Teaching Artist at the William James Association & CA Arts in Corrections “Since 2014, I’ve been a teacher of visual arts at a men’s supermax prison in far Northern California. I am a contract artist and site coordinator with the WJA’s Prison Arts Project. California’s Arts in Corrections Program is a partnership between the California Department of Corrections and the California Arts Council.” Contact: jamcniel1@gmail.com
Reforming Arts
Reforming Arts provides theatre infused liberal arts education to people who are under carceral control in Georgia. Through our education-in-prison in “women’s” facilities and reentry programs we foster the development of creative critical thinking skills, encouraging students to build livable lives. Contact: Wende Ballew, wendeballew@reformingarts.og/info@reformingarts.org
Storycatchers Theatre
Storycatchers works with youth in the juvenile justice system. We help them tell their stories through musical theatre. By moving beyond their histories, they transform their own lives, communities, and people like you who are ready to listen. Contact: Meade Palidofsky, meade@storycatcherstheatre.org
John R. Whitman, PhD
Executive Director and Co-founder of the Museum for Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Contact: johnrwhitman@mac.com
Shakespeare Behind Bars
Shakespeare Behind Bars offers theatrical encounters with personal and social issues to incarcerated, post-incarcerated, and at-risk communities, allowing them to develop life skills that will ensure their successful integration into society. Contact: Curt Tofteland, curt@shakespearebehindbars.org
Peter Merts
Peter Merts Photography. Contact: mail@petermerts.com
Jack Bowers
Senior Arts Mentor at the William James Association. Contact: jbowerspiano@aol.com
Poetic Justice Project
Poetic Justice Project advances social justice by engaging formerly incarcerated youth and adults in arts education, mentoring and the creation of original theatre examining crime, punishment and redemption. Contact: staff@poeticjusticeproject.org
Youth Arts: Unlocked
Youth Arts: Unlocked brings artists and arts workshops to justice-involved youth in Flint and Genesee County. Our goal is to introduce artistic concepts and techniques as a means of connecting, expressing, learning, and discovery. Contact: youtharts.unlocked@gmail.com
Mid-City Community Music
Mid-City Community Music (MCCM) is dedicated to changing lives through the power of art and music in San Diego’s Mid-City neighborhoods. Started in 1974 as The New Expression Folk Music Study Center by three San Diego musicians, MCCM now offers performance workshops, group and private lessons, weekly jam sessions, and free community concerts on a quarterly basis.
Group lessons, workshops, and jam sessions are provided on a low-cost, sliding-scale basis in some of San Diego’s most ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods to community members who would not otherwise have the opportunity to learn to play an instrument, sing and play in a group, or perform on stage.
MCCM also trains San Diego Teaching Artists to work with students in the transitory student population of San Diego County Office of Education’s Juvenile Court and Community Schools (JCCS) to reduce the risk of criminal behavior, improve emotional well-being, and boost academic performance. Contact: info@sdcommunitymusic.org
Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
Since 2011, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art has partnered with the Mecklenburg Co. Sheriff’s Office to provide hands-on art-making courses at Jail Central and Jail North. Working with both youth and adult residents, Bechtler-trained teaching artists and staff conduct up to 12 week-long residencies throughout the year and explore the works of several artists from the collection as well as many social and personal themes. The artwork created as part of this program is part of a rotating exhibition located in the museum’s lobby that highlights all of our community programs. Contact: Mykell Gates Jamil, mykell.gatesjamil@bechtler.org
Oakdale Community Choir
The goals of the Oakdale Community Choir are to provide choral singing experiences for men (inside singers) in the general population of the Iowa Medical and Classification Center (Oakdale Prison) who are not restricted to their units and for women and men (outside singers) in the community who have an interest in learning more about issues in the prison system locally and across the state and nation. Together we have formed a “Community of Caring” that we look to expand in new and creative ways. We have many collaborative aspects of the program such as reflective writing exchanges (see “Newsletters” for excerpts of the writing since we began in 2009), its mutual benefit for both inside and outside singers, the partnership between the University of Iowa and IMCC, our connections with the Iowa Department of Corrections Victim Services and Restorative Justice Programs, and associations with community organizations through our concerts. Contact: Mary Cohen, mary-cohen@uiowa.edu
Leslie Bumstead
Poet, teaching artist in a Maryland prison. Contact: lbumstead@mac.com
Treacy Ziegler
Teaching artist, Prisoner Express. Contact: treacyziegler@yahoo.com
Niel Rosen
Penny Earls
Mother of artists, educator, musician. Contact: pennyearls@gmail.com
(no name) Art Group
The (no name) Art Group, “Artists Making A Difference”, believes that through art we can promote positive change for ourselves, our local communities and our world. (no name) Art Group supports local and international charities through creative art exhibitions and fundraisers dedicated to raising awareness of significant world issues. Contact: sherry.nonameartgroup@gmail.
Museum for Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship
The Museum for Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MBIE) promotes awareness of the Constitutional right to protect intellectual property among historically underserved populations as a way to promote creativity and the production of works that may have market as well as expressive value for their creators. MBIE undertakes educational projects through libraries and other venues. MBIE works in consultation with the Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice and the Justice Arts Coalition, and welcomes opportunities to collaborate with other organizations that share a common mission.
Paul Critz, Pelican Bay Unlocked
Pelican Bay UNLOCKED is a production of the Audio Journalism classes offered at Pelican Bay State Prison, in conjunction with the Arts in Corrections Program administered by the William James Association. This project is supported by Arts in Corrections, a program of the California Arts Council with funding from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Paul Critz is the Instructor for the Audio Journalism classes in PBSP. He can be contacted at pcritz@yahoo.com
Nathalie Applewhite
Nathalie is Managing Director at the Pulitzer Center. Contact: napplewhite@pulitzercenter.org
Gregory Sale
Whitney Wakimoto
Contact: whitney.i.wakimoto@gmail.com
Judy Dworin Performance Project
Judy Dworin Performance Project (JDPP) is an arts non-profit that harnesses creative expression as a catalyst for positive change. JDPP uses dance theater performance and multi-arts engagement to examine social issues, build bridges of understanding across diverse communities, and inspire both individual growth and collective action. Participants in JDPP’s programs discover untapped resources as they grow and heal, opening new and productive channels in the present and for the future.
Dede Lillian Fox
Corina Dalzell
Ethel Feltham
Adele Williams
Jason Chung
Lisa Cashion
Treacy Ziegler
Spencer Reinhard
Matt Malyon, Underground Writing
They are a literature-based creative writing program serving migrant, incarcerated, recovery, and other at-risk communities in northern Washington through literacy and personal transformation. Here is their mission statement: “Unlocking creativity through writing workshops and the amplification of student voices to assist in the restoration of communities, the imagination, and individual lives.” He can be contacted at matt@undergroundwriting.org.
Micaela Foreman
Charlyn Moss, Working Within
charlyn@workingwithin.net Working Within is about connecting with your inner self and leading your spirituality toward transformation. Charlyn specializes in Group and Private Yoga, Tarot Readings, Astrology, Manifestation & The Law of Attraction, and Spiritual Consultation.
Cherie Hacker, Artist
cherie@hackerartpub.com
Shehara Wickramarachchi
sheharawl@gmail.com
Kamran Afary
Kamran Afary is a drama therapist and teaches communication studies at Cal State LA’s Lancaster Prison BA Completion Program. He has published several books, chapters, and articles on performance and justice and is the faculty editor of the Prison BA Journal.
Quincy Struss
Catherine Futter
Lisa Millwood
Alan LaBudde
Phillip Dennis
