Introduction: Performing arts in prisons - creative perspectives

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Author(s)
Balfour, Micheal
Bartleet, Brydie-Leigh
Davey, Linda
Rynne, John
Schippers, Huib
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2019
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The aim of this book is to bring together a collection of essays and perspectives that draw attention to the diversity of positive experiences that have been generated through engagement with the performing arts in prisons. The authors are researchers, activists, professionals, artists and former prisoners. The diversity is important. It represents the multi-vocal and multi-perspective landscape of the arts in prisons.
In prison arts literature, the two main approaches to work have been either to align with the intentions of offender rehabilitation, or to take an aesthetic stance, where the emphasis is upon the inherent ...
View more >The aim of this book is to bring together a collection of essays and perspectives that draw attention to the diversity of positive experiences that have been generated through engagement with the performing arts in prisons. The authors are researchers, activists, professionals, artists and former prisoners. The diversity is important. It represents the multi-vocal and multi-perspective landscape of the arts in prisons. In prison arts literature, the two main approaches to work have been either to align with the intentions of offender rehabilitation, or to take an aesthetic stance, where the emphasis is upon the inherent value of the arts practice itself. While there may be a degree of crossover between these two approaches, this intentionality often frames the kind of work that is delivered. It is also often somewhat ambiguous. There are artists that outwardly resist change agendas and identify themselves primarily as art makers, and yet when asked to identify the benefits of their work, talk in terms of individual ‘transformation’. Similarly, arts practices that are situated within a rehabilitation framework often reduce the value of their work to their effect upon dynamic risk factors or recidivism rates, ignoring the broader value of the practice. This book seeks to explore these positions and the questions raised in order to translate the language of artists and criminal justice agencies and encourage arts practitioners to explore and clarify their intentions.
View less >
View more >The aim of this book is to bring together a collection of essays and perspectives that draw attention to the diversity of positive experiences that have been generated through engagement with the performing arts in prisons. The authors are researchers, activists, professionals, artists and former prisoners. The diversity is important. It represents the multi-vocal and multi-perspective landscape of the arts in prisons. In prison arts literature, the two main approaches to work have been either to align with the intentions of offender rehabilitation, or to take an aesthetic stance, where the emphasis is upon the inherent value of the arts practice itself. While there may be a degree of crossover between these two approaches, this intentionality often frames the kind of work that is delivered. It is also often somewhat ambiguous. There are artists that outwardly resist change agendas and identify themselves primarily as art makers, and yet when asked to identify the benefits of their work, talk in terms of individual ‘transformation’. Similarly, arts practices that are situated within a rehabilitation framework often reduce the value of their work to their effect upon dynamic risk factors or recidivism rates, ignoring the broader value of the practice. This book seeks to explore these positions and the questions raised in order to translate the language of artists and criminal justice agencies and encourage arts practitioners to explore and clarify their intentions.
View less >
Book Title
Performing Arts in Prison Creative Perspectives
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Intellect Books. The Author retains moral and all proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent and trade-mark rights to any process or procedure described in the Contribution. The attached file is reproduced here with permission of the copyright owner(s)
Subject
Studies in Creative Arts and Writing
Performing Arts