reaching incarceratedaudiences A NEW STUDENT PROJECT
“Art for everyone” is our unofficial motto, and we’re always looking for new ways to reach the widest audience possible. Through the University of Georgia’s service-learning initiative, students have been considering the museum’s collection and resources as they try to bring a museum experience into incarcerated classrooms across North Georgia. Common Good Atlanta , operated by co-directors Sarah Higinbotham and Bill Taft since 2010, provides democratic access to higher education for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students in Georgia. Its Clemente Course in the Humanities offers students college credit through Bard College in subjects like critical thinking and writing, literature, U.S. history, philosophy and art history. Emphasizing the value of ambiguity, nuance and critical thinking in academia, these courses further Common Good’s mission by encouraging students to cultivate a better understanding of themselves and societal forces. Dr. Caroline Young , lecturer of English at the University of Georgia and site director at Whitworth Women’s Facility for Common Good Atlanta, has stayed busy during this last year envisioning and organizing this collaborative effort even with limited access to her students due to the public health crisis. Through UGA’s service-learning program, which aims to support community engagement initiatives designed to enhance students’ civic and academic learning by responding to community needs, she taught the course “Writing for Social Justice: The Prison Writing Project” throughout the spring and summer semesters of 2021. Her students began by interrogating a society that perpetuates injustice, exclusion and social control through punitive captivity by investigating the American carceral system and the role of the arts in education, social justice, incarceration and personal freedom. With this nuanced perspective and curiosity, informed by incarcerated writers, artists, scholars and activists, students immersed themselves in the Georgia Museum of Art’s collection.
John Biggers (American, 1924 – 2001), "Star Gazers," 1988. Color lithograph, 23 × 14 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase with funds provided by Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson. GMOA 2016.37.
16
Made with FlippingBook. PDF to flipbook with ease