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Overview
Since 1994, ArtSpring has offered specifically designed interdisciplinary
arts-based workshops in female prisons and in juvenile
facilities through its two principal on-going programs:
Inside Out and Breaking Free. Our programs serve women
and girls representing a diverse ethnic, age and racial
demographic who have an overwhelming number of needs that
are not being met adequately by community resources. Because
these populations are incarcerated, victimized, and often
forgotten, our programs encourage a process of personal
reflection: self-awareness, acceptance, commitment, tolerance
and personal choice-making that provide participants better
tools for survival inside and upon their release.
Inside Out and Breaking
Free are based on a unique
interdisciplinary curriculum developed by Leslie Neal,
the Artistic Director
and Founder of ArtSpring, who is also
an Associate Professor of Dance at Florida International
University. The programs
meet weekly and extend over a three-month period. Original
work by the participants that is explored in the workshop
becomes the material for the creation and production of
live presentations. Each program culminates in a performance/
presentation for facility staff, inmates and, when approved,
invited guests from the outside community. These interdisciplinary
arts programs incorporate movement, theatre games, writing,
drawing, music, storytelling and performance as tools for
personal development. ArtSpring listens
to the needs of the communities we serve, and other program
initiatives are often implemented
to address those needs.
Since 1996, ArtSpring has
continually conducted assessments to determine the impact
on program participants, distributing
pre and post evaluation materials to gather feedback
for program development and improvement. Women who participated
in ArtSpring programs reported indicators
consistent with high self-efficacy.
The objectives of all of ArtSpring’s programs are
to:
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Offer arts based workshops to a diverse group of people
within a community to promote respect, cooperation and
cultural
understanding
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Explore issues of self-esteem and stimulate
personal responsibility through the creative process
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Present opportunities
for participant’s
creative work to be shared that can create a bridge
of interaction,
visibility,
engagement and exchange between isolated communities
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Provide program participants with
opportunities to learn, through the arts, behavioral
and social skills
that
will ultimately aid them in their life transitions
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Partnerships
ArtSpring believes in creating alliances and partnerships
with other agencies and organizations in order to work together
to provide qualitative arts programs and to serve the needs
of institutionalized women and girls in our community. ArtSpring continues to establish strong relations with local agencies
and organizations who are interested in offering our arts-based
programming. We are currently partnered with the
following:
- Belafonte TACOLCY Center
- Florida Department
of Corrections
- Florida Department
of Juvenile Justice
- The Service Network for Children of Inmates
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Delilah, Jefferson Correctional Institution, Inside
Out Participant
1997
“I
pledge my continued commitment and that of my staff,
to making your volunteer experience the best it can
be. We appreciate the work ArtSpring has done in our
institutions for the past decade. Grant funded projects
like yours allow us to “do more with less.” I
support inmate programs and appreciate your long standing
commitment to the Florida Department of Corrections.”
Laura E. Bedard,
Ph.D., Deputy Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections,
Aug. 25, 2005
“And
in the midst of all the darkness, a light has been
showered upon
us,
Reminding us that there are some who care, love, remember.
Some who are more than willing to help, who don’t
judge us by our past,
But who we are…today.
They come from the outside in and give from the inside out.
They bring smiles, hugs, love, and support.
They give freely, and in this one true act of devotion,
They have shown us we are not alone.
They bring to life our talent, show us that we have so much
to offer society.
And that though we’ve made mistakes,
Our lives are not over, just merely beginning.”
Sarah, Homestead
Correctional Institution, Inside Out Participant 2004
“I
believe this type of workshop is an essential tool in self-awareness,
which I think is the key to initiating any sort of change
in one’s being. I had not a clue to my issues before
the tragedy that brought me to prison. I was in enormous
pain and had intense feelings of hopelessness. Through this
workshop I’ve acquired tools that have enabled me to
bring out that which has been within me all along; courage,
trust, love, increased confidence, higher self-esteem, and
the ability to follow through in making a responsible commitment….” Deborah, Broward Correctional Institution, Inside
Out Participant
1996
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