by ACTA
April 28, 2017

Inmates at Corcoran State Prison participating in a son jarocho workshop facilitated by ACTA. Photo: Peter Merts for the California Arts Council.

The California Arts Council’s Arts in Corrections initiative, for which ACTA is a partner, has been in the news!

With the support of the California Arts Council and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, ACTA is currently offering 27 residencies (at 13 weeks each) at 8 different prisons throughout the state. Among the workshops offered for inmates by ACTA artists are music-based classes like son jarocho, Afro-Colombian percussion, blues harmonica, storytelling classes, and visual arts-based offerings like Native American beadwork and Chicano murals and illustration. 

  • Read this New York Times piece about California’s Arts in Corrections program by Patricia Leigh Brown (April 2, 2017).
  • Read this Merced Sun-Star piece by Brianna Calix and watch Andrew Kuhn’s short video featuring inmates in the Native American beadwork class led by Dale Tex (Northfork Mono) and Julie Dick-Tex (Dunlap Mono), facilitated by ACTA. (April 19, 2017).
See more of Peter Merts’ photography from the Arts in Correction program here.

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