upcoming grant deadline: 05/15/2024
Mary Dewitt's (ACG'15, '09,LTA'10, WOO '03, '00) paintings of Avis Lee and Kennetta Andrews will be on exhibit at the African American Museum in Philadelphia through September 11, Avis is currently serving life without parole and Kennetta worked for 26 years at Muncy a correctional facility for women. The exhibit, Arresting Patterns Perspectives on Race, Criminal Justice, Artistic Expression, and Community includes multi-media, installation, photography, paintings and prints bringing together some of America’s leading contemporary artists including Dread Scott, Titus Kaphur, Andy Warhol, and Adrian Piper, among others.
Their work gives voice to the impact of pervasive patterns of racial bias in our judicial system, giving visual form to the notion that the sentencing policies over the past 40 years have transformed the nation’s prison system into a “modern equivalent of Jim Crow.” In the aftermath of the Ferguson verdict, the Baltimore riots, and other highly publicized acts of violence against people of color we examine intentional and unintentional discrimination in our legal system more closely. These recent events, along with growing international dialogue around U.S. policies that have resulted in the mass incarceration of African Americans, have led to a call for a more transparent dialogue between citizens, law enforcement, and policy makers. Be part of the dialogue; Arresting Patterns will featured a Town Hall discussion on June 25 and a screening of the documentary Evolution of a Criminal including a discussion with the filmmaker Darius Clark Monroe on May 15.
