Our Supporters and Sustaining Members

 

JAC is proud to be a grantee of the Art For Justice Fund
Support with framing by Artful Framing and Gallery
JAC is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council
Database and archive support has been generously provided in kind by Nil Database.
JAC is proud to be a Mellon Foundation grant recipient
JAC is grateful for support from Devin and Cindy Wenig

JAC’s CorrespondARTS program is generously supported in part by Tour de Force

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.com

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