The document discusses several arts programs that are used in correctional facilities to enhance literacy skills and provide therapeutic benefits for inmates. It provides examples of writing, visual art, theater, and music programs that give inmates opportunities for creative expression to process emotions and develop important life skills. Resources are also listed that support arts initiatives in prisons and advocate for the role of arts in corrections.

1. ARTS IN CORRECTIONS Arts in Corrections is a community of practice that serves as an advocate for arts as both a literacy and a therapeutic tool. This discussion will show you several of the many exciting programs that are available to enhance your students’ writing and communication skills by integrating the arts into your curriculum.

2. Advocacy for Art as a Therapeutic and Literacy Tool Visual Literacy is the ability to construct meaning from visual input, much as you construct meaning from the symbols of an alphabet. Understanding and interpreting visual information is both a concrete and abstract process, allowing for the development of the higher order thinking skills of synthesis, analysis, and evaluation.

3. Why I Like Art I can express my feelings in Art. Art gives me the chance to express myself without getting in trouble. Art lets me express my feelings on paper. I like to work with my hands. I can draw things that express my feelings. Art helps me to be calm. You can express art with your own individualism and creativity. We have a wide variety of projects to do. Arts lets me express my ideas in a way other than verbal communication and it also lets me explore my visual imagination with colors and other elements of art. Art is a thing of life to me. It’s like something you can bring out of someone. Art makes me feel artistic and happy.

4. Scaffolding Many individuals and organizations support the arts and provide resource materials and personnel.

5. Resources CEA Special Interest Group: Prison Arts Tapped In: Arts in Corrections, Alt/Correctional Ed Forum Local and State Arts Councils PBS P.O.V. Arts Projects

6. CEA Special Interest Group Prison Arts www.ceanational.org

7. Tapped In Arts in Corrections Group Alternative/Correctional Ed Forum

8. Arts Councils Perry County Council of the Arts Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

9. National Arts Associations National Gallery of Art www.nga.gov Smithsonian Institution Gallery of African Art http://www.nmafa.si.edu/ Kennedy Center for the Arts ArtsConnected http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/ www.artsconnected.org

10. PBS P.O.V. What I Want My Words To Do To You http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/whatiwant/ Teachers Guide http://www.pbs.org/pov2003/whatiwant/pdf/resources_guide.pdf

11. Arts Projects Blanket the World With Peace Shakespeare Behind Bars Empty and Meaningless: The Box Project Heads on Fire The Silence Speaks AS220 Create Now!

12. Blanket the World With Peace “ Peace through the resolution of conflict”

13. Hats Off to Peace

15. Cultural Identity Hats Off to Peace Reflections I picked peace because I was thinking of my family and love in my life. . . But no peace. I wish for harmony in my life. And I dedicated it to R.B. because I wish peace and harmony for him.

16. Cultural Identity Hats Off to Peace Reflections I chose to do those symbols because those symbols represent a good connection that I have with my family members and that no matter what that no matter what happens to us, we are always going to be there for one another, and that’s what the cross stands for. I thought the hat was important because this represents my family.

17. Cultural Identity Hats Off to Peace Reflections My hat represents me because it explains who I am and what I like to do. I enjoyed this project because it was different and I never did it before. My hat to people shows that it doesn’t matter who you are and you don’t have to impress anyone to be the same as them.

18. Cultural Identity Hats Off to Peace Reflections My hat symbolizes freedom and love for my brother because Insane Clown Posse sings about the world being free having no boss or authority figures telling you what to do. They sing about everyone learning to survive on their own and it symbolizes love for my brother because he’ll know I made it for him because I care.

19. Empty and Meaningless: The Box Project Transformational Community Art that Touches, Moves and Inspires http://www.urbanesque.com/empty

20. The Silence Speaks http://www.silencespeaks.org/ http://www.silencespeaks.org/

22. AS220 http://www.as220.org/as220/weblog/index.html

23. Create Now! http://www.createnow.org/

25. "I let the guys choose their roles," he says, "and you'd be surprised how many choose to act out the very kinds of things they're in here for." The inmates have told him those roles allow them to grapple with emotions they wouldn't otherwise be able to confront safely. "I tell them, 'You choose your role, but your role also chooses you' – and I believe that happens for a reason." Curt Tofteland, director of Shakespeare Behind Bars

26. Heads on Fire http://www. headsonfire .org/ hof /index.html

27. Arts Advocacy Organizations

28. Opening Minds Through the Arts Here, you will find compelling examples of arts programs, resources, and discussions that can support and animate teaching and learning. The OMA mission is to improve student achievement by building connections between the arts and the core curriculum. The OMA Project was developed around brain-based learning theories designed to impact at-risk children and significantly increase student achievement. The goal of OMA is to help all students succeed by actively supporting and positively engaging students in all subjects through the arts. Different Ways of Knowing’s Arts-in-Learning Strategies Accelerate Achievement for All Students and Student Groups

29. Ways to Be More Creative Mental Blocks Creative Thinking Problems VISION: Because of the emergence of multimedia technology, the 3Rs are becoming the 4Rs: Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic, and aRt. Thanks to the struggle to use multimedia effectively, the language of art is taking center stage. ~Dr. Jason Ohler

30. Thanks! Go to your classroom and create!!!