The Confined Arts (TCA) is a program that cultivates and showcases the talents and creative voices of artists directly impacted by mass incarceration and intersecting social justice issues. TCA enables artists to express their voices through the visual and performing arts, poetry, and music as a means to abolish inhumane narratives and socially degrading stigmas that are used to describe the past experiences and limit the futures of individuals impacted by incarceration. Through artistry, collaborative activism, research, education and training, TCA equips artists to influence policy change, and use their artistry and knowledge to advocate for a world anchored on empathy and saturated with healing and prevention-based policies.
TCA has a 2-part mission:
- Foster public programming and storytelling projects that use narratives that enable the imagination to counter the dehumanizing narratives that are driving criminal justice policy, and act as catalysts for the implementation of scenarios and solutions transcending the stigmatizing and unjust status quo.
- Provide strategic arts engagement education to artists who are formerly incarcerated, teaching artists, practitioners, and legal advocates who want to learn more about how they can use the arts to mitigate the imprints of economic and social inequality.
Learn More: https://www.theconfinedarts.org/