Transforming as Care: Arts in Corrections

Support Transformation Rooted in Culture and Care

This giving season, ACTA is highlighting how cultural practices support care in places where it’s needed most. Our second story focuses on Transformation as Care inside California prisons.

Inside California Health Care Facility (CHCF)

Martín had been in the prison system for 25 years before arriving at California Health Care Facility (CHCF), where he was invited to join ACTA’s Danza Azteca classes. He didn’t know what to expect, only that he needed to release what he carried inside. In the dance circle, the discipline of each step brought him structure, and making his own dance regalia by hand showed him he could create something he could be proud of.

What he learned in class now shapes his daily life. This renewed Martín’s desire to keep going—“seguir echándole ganas”—and build a life where he can create rather than simply endure.

It was a place where I could be vulnerable…simply be me.” —Martín.

Martín (center) and fellow participants in ACTA’s Danza Azteca workshop, led by Joaquín Cruz Chávez, at the November 16, 2024 culmination event at California Health Care Facility (CHCF). Photo: Peter Merts.

ACTA’s Arts in Corrections Program

Stories like Martín’s are happening in prisons across the state every week. What Martín discovered in the Danza Azteca circle reflects what we see across ACTA’s Arts in Corrections classes statewide. The traditional art forms we bring inside help participants reconnect with their humanity and cultural identity, offering a sense of belonging and strength.

Teaching artists who reflect the same backgrounds as their participants help cultivate a space where trust develops and people feel seen and respected. From this foundation, ACTA’s Arts in Corrections program offers culturally rooted practices that support reflection, emotional stability, and collective learning, opening pathways toward personal transformation.

For ACTA, this is what Transforming as Care means: the steady, patient work of helping justice-impacted individuals experience moments of belonging, develop resilience, and create the internal grounding that supports meaningful change.

Wanda Ravernell and Dennis Tobaji Stewart lead the culmination activity for ACTA’s Afro-Cuban Drumming workshops at California Health Care Facility on November 16, 2024. Photo: Peter Merts.

Your gift contributes to this care and helps make this transformation possible.

Your gift helps ACTA continue to provide opportunities and spaces rooted in ancestral knowledge, where justice-impacted community members can experience transformation and restoration. Give today to help bring cultural grounding and creative possibility to more justice-impacted individuals across the state. Together, we can keep this circle of care strong: one rhythm, one step, one moment of transformation at a time.

Participants of the Danza Azteca and Afro-Cuban Drumming class culmination activities at California Health Care Facility on November 16, 2024. Photo: Peter Merts.

To honor this shared commitment, we are offering a limited-edition Canciones del San Joaquín vinyl record as a gift of gratitude for contributions of $300 or more. Each record carries a reminder that care can take root anywhere—through rhythm, memory, and the creativity that opens the door to change.

Click the “Give Today” button below to make a tax-deductible contribution.

Or you can send a check to:
Alliance for California Traditional Arts
744 P Street, Suite 307
Fresno, CA 93721

Contact:
Amy Kitchener, Executive Director
[email protected]

Join ACTA in listening, transforming, and learning as care

To celebrate this shared commitment, we’re offering a limited-edition Canciones del San Joaquín vinyl record as a gift of gratitude for contributions of $300 or more.

Give Today