Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America

Sunday, Mar. 9, 2-3:30pm

Artist, Author, and Educator Phyllis Kornfeld has worked closely with incarcerated men and women around the country for 43 years—providing the transformative experience of creating sincere and beautiful art.Her presentation is a look at the powerful drawings, paintings, and objects created by the people in her workshops.

FREE – Register HERE

Spencertown Academy Arts Center
790 Route 203
Spencertown, NY 12165

Conversations with Neighbors presents “Cellblock Visions: Set Free in the Penitentiary” with internationally known prison art expert Phyllis Kornfeld. An artist, author, and educator, Kornfeld had led art workshops with incarcerated men and women in facilities around the country—ranging from county jail to maximum security to death row—for more than four decades. She will offer a slide/lecture presentation with powerful images and eloquent quotes that reveal the unseen subculture of art making in prisons.

Based in Stockbridge, MA, Kornfeld is the author of  “Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America”(Princeton University Press). “Personally, it is always an illuminating, exciting event to see the prisoners discover something very positive, and mysterious, coming from inside themselves. The art is often miraculously fresh, and despite the context, there is a lot of joy,” she says. “I am convinced that art making is a natural human impulse and everybody has the potential. But often, internal and external life events block the access.”