The “Inside--->OUT: incARceraTion” installation is a collaborative art project between incarcerated Artists in the WV Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Uplift WV curation team, and the REACH Initiative’s community training, exploring the intersections between trauma, addiction, incarceration, and reentry. The “Inside--->OUT” installation was developed to create community conversations, collaborative creativity and resilience around issues of incarceration, recovery, and reentry in West Virginia.
Leonard Cohen once said, “There is a crack in everything. That is how the light gets in.”
“Inside--->OUT:IncARceraTion” explores the humanity of incarcerated individuals and meaningfully considers the reality of their journeys to become whole and healthy individuals, using their abilities to put good into the world, even while being excluded from it. The work considers how trauma, addiction, and incarceration can all be forms of imprisonment.
The works hold in tension the realities of the incarcerated artist's self-reflection of childhood trauma, subsequent consequences, and rehabilitation amid exclusion. At the same time, space is created for the community to consider what successful reentry and community restoration might look like and how "the light" can seep in to help heal what has been broken.
In West Virginia, 1 out of 10 children has an incarcerated parent. The WV Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation held 41,575 inmates and released 38,767 back into our community in 2021. There isn’t a community in West Virginia that isn’t impacted by incarceration and its too frequent connection to addiction.
Inside--->OUT: IncARceraTion leans into a model of restorative justice that employs creating the ability for currently incarcerated artists to utilize their skills to heal themselves and their community through their artwork. UPLIFT WV, a group made up of individuals formerly incarcerated and/or in recovery, curate, hang, and act as docents at the exhibits. Their input is invaluable in providing insight into the materials and techniques used by incarcerated artists, while their leadership in the project has gained them social equity in their communities in addressing reentry. The REACH Initiative provides coordinating educational training opportunities in conjunction with the exhibit. This training strengthens communities with the skills needed to support justice-impacted individuals and families in successful reentry and futures while lessening recidivism.
The exhibit is currently on tour in West Virginia engaging communities in conversations and education regarding reentry, recovery, and community resilience.