WINDOWS FROM PRISON :
Windows From Prison* is an ongoing project that uses photography as a way to connect incarcerated men, women, and teens to their past while creating space and humanistic entry points for students, faculty, NGO's, family members of incarcerated individuals, former prisoners, and policy makers to engage with the sources, impacts, and alternatives to mass incarceration.
Beginning with creative writing workshops with incarcerated men, women, and teens, the project asks:
“If you could have window in your cell, what place from your past would it look out to?”
These responses become photo requests that are collaboratively produced by students, former prisoners, artists, activists, and many others.
Once the images are produced and given to the corresponding prisoners, the images are blown up on banners and publicly exhibited to spark dialogue and action around criminal justice issues. Since starting the project as an undergraduate project at VCU in the fall of 2012, Windows From Prison has expanded into interactive exhibits in several states, a national postcard-exchange program, a high school curriculum, and various public installations that have brought thousands of individuals together with prisoners across the country. The project was recently produced with Parsons and the New School in NYC and is being funded by the US Embassy for a version in Ottawa, CA. Beyond impacting direct participants through a highly collaborative process, the project has received multiple awards, fellowships, and reached wide audiences through the NY Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, PBS Newshour, and a multitude of other media outlets.
The on-going project is directed by Mark Strandquist and only made possible by the incredible support and collaboration of countless individuals and organizations.
Beginning with creative writing workshops with incarcerated men, women, and teens, the project asks:
“If you could have window in your cell, what place from your past would it look out to?”
These responses become photo requests that are collaboratively produced by students, former prisoners, artists, activists, and many others.
Once the images are produced and given to the corresponding prisoners, the images are blown up on banners and publicly exhibited to spark dialogue and action around criminal justice issues. Since starting the project as an undergraduate project at VCU in the fall of 2012, Windows From Prison has expanded into interactive exhibits in several states, a national postcard-exchange program, a high school curriculum, and various public installations that have brought thousands of individuals together with prisoners across the country. The project was recently produced with Parsons and the New School in NYC and is being funded by the US Embassy for a version in Ottawa, CA. Beyond impacting direct participants through a highly collaborative process, the project has received multiple awards, fellowships, and reached wide audiences through the NY Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, PBS Newshour, and a multitude of other media outlets.
The on-going project is directed by Mark Strandquist and only made possible by the incredible support and collaboration of countless individuals and organizations.
*The project is directed by Mark Strandquist and was awarded a 2013 Photowings/Ashoka Foundation Insight project grant and a Pollination Project Grant. The project includes amazing partnerships with Free Minds DC, Provisions Library, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, a multi-discipinary array of departments at George Mason University and many others.