Introduction: Performing arts in prisons - creative perspectives

Abstract

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.