Programming
Coordinating
Organizations
In partnership with CDCR, the California Arts Council has contracts with various organizations to provide rehabilitative arts services in state correctional facilities.
Arts in Corrections includes wide array of rehabilitative arts programming led by professional artists, including the arts disciplines of:
• Theater
• Creative writing
• Audio journalism
• Painting/drawing
• Mexican jarocho music
• Native American beadwork
• African American storytelling
• Songwriting
• Drumming
• Chicano poetry
• Choral singing
The Actors' Gang
Los Angeles
Summary of Services: The Actors' Gang, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Robbins, has provided theater arts programming with an emphasis on Commedia dell'Arte techniques for more than a decade. The Prison Project team provides highly physical, emotional, ensemble-based theater workshops. The work endeavors to unlock the vast human potential of the individuals experiencing incarceration. Classes allow the participants to address and begin to heal their trauma, as well as learn to manage their emotions in a productive way.
Facilities Served: California Correctional Institution; California Institution for Men; California Institution for Women; California State Prison, Sacramento; California Rehabilitation Center; High Desert State Prison, Ironwood State Prison
Alliance for California
Traditional Arts
Fresno
Summary of Services: The Alliance for California Traditional Arts provides arts programming focused on the vast and underserved field of traditional arts, rooted in cultural heritage and community-based practice. Expressions such as Native American beadwork, storytelling, songwriting, African drumming, and American folk guitar and guitarra ranchera are intended as familiar and culturally relevant art forms for participants.
Facilities Served: Avenal State Prison; California City Correctional Facility; California Correctional Institution; California Institution for Men; California Institution for Women; California Rehabilitation Center; California State Prison, Corcoran; California State Prison, Los Angeles County; Central California Women’s Facility; Correctional Training Facility; Chuckawalla Valley State Prison; Ironwood State Prison; Pleasant Valley State Prison; Salinas Valley State Prison; Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran; Valley State Prison
Arts Council of Kern
Bakersfield
Summary of Services: The Arts Council of Kern offers a variety of classes in a range of disciplines. Poetry students learn to speak more freely and present original and existing spoken word pieces, visual arts students learn the fundamental of painting and drawing, and music programs teach the skills necessary for beginner’s guitar or ukulele.
Facilities Served: Kern Valley State Prison, North Kern State Prison, Wasco State Prison
Contemporary Health Solutions
SAN DIEGO
Summary of Services: Contemporary Health Solutions focuses to produce positive health outcomes in individuals, families, communities, and organizations by innovative best practice outreach interventions. Arts providers will teach folkloric West African drumming and the various polyrhythmic parts for the whole musical arrangement from beginning to end. The program will create a positive atmosphere promoting group dynamics and interaction while developing personal meaningful responsibility to their sound of the drum.
Facilities Served: California State Prison, Centinela; Calipatria State Prison
Cornerstone Theater Company
LOS ANGELES
Summary of Services: For over 30 years,
Cornerstone Theater Company has pioneered a model of theater that utilizes community-based art-making and education methods to advance social change in communities across the nation. Cornerstone provides a collaborative process of creating an original play inspired by community stories. Over the course of the workshop, participants gain skill in key aspects of community-based theater methodology, including trust building, story sharing, dramatic writing, design, songwriting and acting. The workshop culminates in a presentation of the completed script in a staged-reading format.
Facilities Served: Wasco State Prison
Dance Kaiso
San Francisco
Summary of Services: Dance Kaiso provides residencies in Afro-Caribbean dance. Teaching artists conduct Caribbean drum/percussion and dance classes taught in a geographical, historical, and cultural context, culminating in a final presentation.
Facilities Served: Correctional Training Facility, Salinas Valley State Prison
Give a Beat
LOS ANGELES
Summary of Services: Give a Beat brings together professional working artists within the electronic music industry with youth and adults who are currently or have previously been incarcerated. By providing exposure to creative arts through DJ and Music production workshops, mentoring programs, and potential career pathways, our goal is to positively affect these individuals' mental, emotional and social well-being.
Facilities Served: California City Correctional Facility, Kern Valley State Prison
Fresno Arts Council
Fresno
Summary of Services: Local arts agency Fresno Arts Council values the role the arts play in all communities, believing in the benefits of increased self-awareness and success from participating in arts programming. The Council provides visual, performing, and literary arts instruction in California state correctional institutions.
Facilities Served: Avenal State Prison; California State Prison, Corcoran; Pleasant Valley State Prison; Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran; Valley State Prison
KALW
San Francisco
Summary of Services: Built on the success of their San Quentin Radio project, KALW provides an audio journalism and engineering training program, with a team of radio professionals and their equipment helping people experiencing incarceration to build skills and share their stories about their experiences. Curriculum includes training in conceiving stories, pitching stories to editors, developing outlines and plans for putting together stories, sound recording, interviewing, transcribing, writing, rewriting, working with an editor, voicing stories, working with digital editing software, and enhancing stories with music or other sound.
Facilities Served: California State Prison, Solano; San Quentin State Prison
InsideOUT Writers
Los Angeles
Summary of Services: InsideOUT uses creative writing as a catalyst for personal transformation in numerous correctional facilities in Southern California. Professional creative writing experts will provide creative writing and literary arts programming.
Facilities Served: California City Correctional Facility, California Correctional Institution, California State Prison, Corcoran; Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, Kern Valley State Prison, Ironwood State Prison, Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility, Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran
Marin Shakespeare Company
San Rafael
Summary of Services: The Marin Shakespeare Company has 15 years of experience providing programs in California state prisons, inspiring individuals experiencing incarceration and shedding light on their great potential. The company’s curriculum incorporates drama therapy techniques, Shakespeare study and performance, and the creation of autobiographical theater by participants. Classes include check-ins designed to encourage self-reflection, skill-building exercises to encourage creativity, study of Shakespeare and how the themes from the plays relate to our own lives, and small group decision-making exercises designed to allow for the practice of conflict resolution. The program culminates in a final performance of a Shakespeare play with costumes and props.
Facilities Served: California Health Care Facility, Stockton; California Medical Facility; California State Prison, Solano; Deuel Vocational Institution; Folsom State Prison; High Desert State Prison; Mule Creek State Prison; San Quentin State Prison
Muckenthaler Cultural Center
Fullerton
Summary of Services: Serving the at-risk and underserved members of our community has become the mission of the Muck's expanding arts education outreach program. Through Arts in Corrections, Muckenthaler provides intensive, mini-residencies at correctional facilities, offering instruction in visual and performing arts.
Facilities Served: California Rehabilitation Center; California State Prison, Los Angeles County
Prison Arts Collective
headquarterd at san diego state university
Summary of Services: The Prison Arts Collective (PAC) works to expand access to the transformative power of the arts through collaboration and mutual learning by providing multidisciplinary arts programming, guest artist workshops and facilitator training for individuals experiencing incarceration. The PAC model integrates art history and theory, creative practice, and reflection in each class. Teaching teams and participants actively co-create a safe space for creativity and expression. PAC is headquartered at San Diego State University with chapters at CSU Fresno and CSU San Bernardino.
Facilities Served: Avenal State Prison; California Institution for Men; California Institution for Women; California Rehabilitation Center; California State Prison, Los Angeles County; Calipatria State Prison; Chuckawalla Valley State Prison; Ironwood State Prison; Substance Abuse Treatment Facility; Valley State Prison
Red Ladder Theatre Company
San Jose
Summary of Services: Formed in 1992, Red Ladder Theatre Company has a long-standing history of serving populations experiencing incarceration, using the tools and techniques of improvisational theater to help its participants develop positive life-skills. Guided by Red Ladder Company members, participants are encouraged to examine and solve the issues and problems that affect and often derail their lives. Through the tools and techniques of improvisational theater, participants are able to safely come to terms with, and triumph over, the forces that hamper their lives while also actively developing their abilities to make positive choices, solve problems creatively, focus on tasks, work collaboratively, learn from their mistakes, and develop leadership and self-esteem.
Facilities Served: California Health Care Facility, Stockton; California State Prison, Sacramento; Central California Women’s Facility; Correctional Training Facility; Deuel Vocational Institution; Folsom State Prison; Folsom Women's Facility; Salinas Valley State Prison; Valley State Prison
Street Symphony
Los ANGELES
Summary of Services: Street Symphony shares musical programming that serves as a platform for empowerment, healing, and fellowship in communities that have been disenfranchised through homelessness and incarceration. Teaching artists will share intimate and personal musical experiences through collaborative performances, meditations, and songwriting. Classes will facilitate a respectful and non-judgmental space, using music as a catalyst for discussion around trauma, healing, redemption, and hope.
Facilities Served: California City Correctional Facility
Riverside Arts Council
Riverside
Summary of Services: The Riverside Arts Council offers sessions in contemporary and Shakespearean theater, incorporating exercises involving movement, voice, storytelling, improvisation, scene study and character development. Culminating performances conclude each session. Within the framework of this program is an underlying therapeutic value. The performing of these projects leads to a sense of accomplishment and pride.
Facilities Served: California Rehabilitation Center, California Institution for Men, California Institution for Women
Studios 4 Students
Sacramento
Summary of Services: Studios 4 Students provides a safe, positive teaching/learning environment, with the space and tools needed to support creative expression through music and poetry, with a priority to improve the health/well being of underserved communities. Students are given hands on lessons in digital music production, studio engineering, creative writing, and live performance from industry professionals. The program provides an outlet for participants to express themselves creatively as well as learn professional skills, preparing them for opportunities to pursue music production/engineering as a profession.
Facilities Served: California State Prison, Sacramento
TheatreWorkers Project
LOS ANGELES
Summary of Services: TheatreWorkers Project teaching artists provide an introduction to the fundamentals of physical theater, improvisation and writing techniques that will lead to a performance piece or staged reading created and performed by the participants. Participants work together as a whole group ensemble and in small groups structured to provide safe and supportive environments for creative risk taking. TheatreWorkers Project's belief that “every human being has a story to tell” serves as the jumping off point for this program.
Facilities Served: California State Prison, Los Angeles County
We Heart Art Academy
MANTECA
Summary of Services: We Heart Art Academy offers workshops for long-term and short-term participants, including mural work, dancing, portrait painting, African-American art, still life drawing, portrait charcoal, and landscape. Programming consists of more than 100 workshops serving more than 2,800 participants. We Heart Art Academy has recruited a diverse group of Art Providers that represent different genders, races, ethnicities, cultures and countries.
Facilities Served: Deuel Vocational Institution
Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural
Sylmar
Summary of Services: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural offers a wide array of art and literacy programming rooted in ancestral knowledge for all ages. Tia Chucha is collaborating with the Roots and Wings program to present Literary Arts workshops designed for all learners of all levels. The workshops will focus on powerful writers from plays, memoir, poetry and novels to highlight the strength of the human spirit. The workshop prompts will encourage the participants to allow creativity to drive joy and healing.
Facilities Served: California Institution for Men
William James Association
Santa Cruz
Summary of Services: The William James Association has a 40-year history of developing, managing and funding multi-disciplinary fine arts programs for individuals experiencing incarceration, working with organizations from National Endowment for the Arts to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office to provide fine arts services in correctional settings. WJA provides a wide array of programming spanning the fields of visual, literary and performing arts.
Facilities Served: California Correctional Center; California Institution for Men; California Institution for Women; California Medical Facility; California Men’s Colony; California Rehabilitation Center; California State Prison, Los Angeles County; California State Prison, Sacramento; California State Prison, Solano; Centinela State Prison; High Desert State Prison; Mule Creek State Prison; Pelican Bay State Prison; Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility; Salinas Valley State Prison; San Quentin State Prison; Sierra Conservation Center
WoMen Wonder Writers
Riverside/san bernardino
Summary of Services: The Write of Your L!fe, curricula created by WoMen Wonder Writers, has teamed up with Girl Scouts Beyond Bars, a family reunification program hosted by Girls Scouts of San Gorgonio, to bring The Write of Your L!fe ~ Beyond Bars to correctional facilities through Central and Southern California. This program uses poetry, songwriting, spoken word, and painting as catalysts for building resiliency and restoring incarcerated individuals and their families. Trauma-informed facilitators assist students through a transformative process for how they examine and approach life and consider different perspectives about incarceration, family, employment and community dynamics.
Facilities Served: California City Correctional Facility; California State Prison, Centinela; Central California Women’s Facility; Chuckawalla Valley State Prison