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Bard Prison Initiative Celebrates 14th Commencement

The success of the Bard Prison Initiative was reinforced this year as the 14th commencement was celebrated last month at the medium-security Woodbourne Correctional Facility in New York. The men’s prison saw 30 students awarded Associate in Arts Degrees – degrees they earned behind bars! BPI graduate Lionel J Johnson recently gave an impassioned speech

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State Inmates to Peddle Artistic Works at Second Annual Crafts Fair

By Margaret Wright A flurry of preparations in a cavernous warehouse on N.M. 14 just south of Santa Fe resembles those for any other fine arts and craftsmanship exposition. There’s the scent of fresh paint and sawdust from workers repairing sections of walls where goods will be displayed. Another crew unpacks boxes of painstakingly fashioned

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The Art of Shawn Jones

By PrisonEducation.com

Beauty, as ritual and symbol, are as necessary to human beings as air and water.  The recognition of beauty marks us as human, and gives us identity.  And that is why the inquiry into the makeup of beauty, and its constituents, becomes influential.  Is beauty an illusion; is it a mere commodity?  Is it only a credit card receipt away?  Or is it something more ethereal?  Is it substantial or insubstantial?  Is it purely and only physical; is it spiritual?  In other words, are the Thomists right, or should the Manicheans take precedence?  What is beauty?  And how does it impact us as individuals?  As members of a society?  How does it impact and influence our culture?  Or does our culture influence our opinion of beauty?  And of course, all these interrogatives are pertinent and important; yet the most salient question is this:  how, what, when and where is beauty?  In other words, what is the epistemology of beauty? 

Thus as part of an inquiry into beauty, PE.com will exhibit works of prison art.  Although produced by prisoners or ex-prisoners, from one perspective, the designation ‘prison art’ is moot.  For in the end, art is art.  Whether it was created by a prisoner or a student or a farmer makes no difference.  However, from another perspective, the term ‘prison art’ speaks volumes.  For according to some, prisoners and/or ‘criminals’ are devoid of any sense of aesthetics.  Of course, this viewpoint is wrong.  The recognition and admiration of beauty is universal.

THE ART OF SHAWN JONES

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