Caroline MacGregor: My guest today is Nora Kronitzke. She's the prison creative arts project director. Nora is a historian of the modern United States who specializes in urban African-American history and the history of the American carceral state. She earned her PhD from the Department of History at the University of Michigan in 2017 and was previously a post-doctoral fellow at Case Western Reserve University and at the university of Michigan. Nora is with me today. We're going to be discussing the Prison Creative Arts Project right here in Ann Arbor. And thank you so much for joining me today, Nora. Yeah, thank you for having me. Tell me about this project. It really does seem fascinating and an opportunity for incarcerated people.
Nora Krinitsky: Yeah, so the Creative Arts Project is a program of the University of Michigan. It was founded in 1990. And we offer creative arts programming to people who are incarcerated throughout the state of Michigan, our largest public program opened on Tuesday night. It's the annual exhibition of artists in Michigan prisons. And this year we're celebrating the 30th annual exhibition. We also offer creative arts workshops in prisons in southeast Michigan. And we publish an annual literary review of creative writing. So we offer opportunities for visual artists, writers, theater makers, kinds of creativity across the board.
Caroline MacGregor: So it's been running for many years, it's obviously a very popular exhibition and it sounds like you have tremendous interest from those who are incarcerated and who want to participate in this art exhibition. We do. So this year, we are exhibiting.
Nora Krinitsky: We're exhibiting 871 works of art in our show created by over 600 artists. It's one of the largest shows that we've ever had. And every year we involve about 800 to 1000 people in our program so that includes people who are exhibiting in our exhibition, people who are writing and being published in our review and people who aren't participating in workshops. We also send a newsletter three times a year. To about 2000 incarcerated people. So you're right, we're lucky to have a lot of interests and those are folks who were incarcerated throughout the state in all of the 25 Michigan Department of Corrections facilities, as well as the one federal facility in Milan, Michigan.
Caroline MacGregor: Tell me about the variety of styles and media that are featured in this exhibition. Absolutely.
Nora Krinitsky: Absolutely. As you can imagine with over 800 works of art, there's a huge range of styles and artistic experience. One of the things I really pride our show on is that we want to feature the whole range of our artistic creation inside. So all the way from people who are just picking up a pencil for the first time to people who is extremely skilled and have a lot of experience with their creative practice. We see a lot of painting. That's one of the most popular forms of art that we see inside. Portraiture is one of most popular genres. Often when I talk to artists, they'll talk about wanting to learn how to be a better portrait artist. We also see just a really wide range of creative use of material. So there is a robust culture of crocheting and sometimes knitting in prison. People will also use found material to create. Sculptures or even paintings. One artist this year collected shortbread cookies over a series of years that came with his meals and created a really cool collage painting those cookies. They look like little tiles, but it's actually a very unique material. I could no doubt go on with many more examples, but we'd be here forever.
Caroline MacGregor: Yes, it's just fascinating. I mean, it is such a tremendous way to express themselves. One of the things that I heard about this exhibition is that it really reminds people of the value of connection and the healing that can be found through art, both inside prisons and even beyond those walls.
Nora Krinitsky: Of the things that I'm always really fascinated by is by far most of the artists who exhibit in our show were not artists before they went to prison. There was something about the experience of confinement, the experience of being separated from their loved ones that really moved them to create. And it's also the case that when you are in prison and all of your agency has been taken away, the ability to have complete control over canvas or a sculpture or a page is really empowering. So I think there's something that we really can learn from that about the power of art to make us feel closer to ourselves when we face the most challenging circumstances.
Caroline MacGregor: If you're just joining us, my conversation today is with Nora Krinitsky. She is the director of the Prison Creative Arts Project, now on exhibition at the University of Michigan. Our conversation now continues. And also these adverse circumstances, while they're part of the artist's stories, define or separate their work really from that of their contemporaries.
Nora Krinitsky: Absolutely Expect to see a lot of images of prison at our show, and there are some, but it is the minority. Most of what we see is really imaginative work. In terms of what what we see in the show, you know, you might expect to see a lots of imagery of prison, and we do see see some, of course, but we also see a huge wide range of subject matter, including, you know, the natural world connections to family and loved ones. Imaginative or sort of fantastical scenes. So in that way, I think the show really kind of defies stereotypes or expectations about what we might assume artists are creating in prison and certainly speaks to the fact that, people's imaginations are not confined by their circumstances. And there's something really important about being able to create in a whole range of ways.
Caroline MacGregor: Tell me about the actual process of getting these incarcerated inmates involved, how they get their tools and the art materials to go about doing all these exhibits.
Nora Krinitsky: So, in terms of accessing artistic supplies, artists have to purchase those themselves. That's not something we're able to provide to them. So sometimes that might mean someone's using their wages inside prison or have support from family members. The cost of everything in prison is greatly inflated. And so the costs of art supplies might be almost a year of prison wages, just to give an example. People inside also wait very, very long to get shipments of art supplies. So all of that to say these supplies are very precious to people who are using them to create art.
Caroline MacGregor: I'm just curious, as you say that, is this not a deterrent to many, you know, if it does take so long to receive the supplies? I know commissaries are set up, but with that exaggerated cost, it seems like it could be keeping many people from participating.
Nora Krinitsky: I think that it can be and I think it can also, you know, lead to creative use of resources. I can think of one artist who always paints both sides of his canvases. And so we're always sort of having to know which side do we want to display because they might both be beautiful paintings, but he doesn't want to go anything to go to waste and so uses both sides to paint. But it absolutely could be a deterrent in terms of just access and People in prison would also have variable access to supplies, depending on their security level. And so that might, people who are at a very high security level might only have access to, you know, a pen and paper, whereas at a lower security level, there would be more access to things like paint or pastels or colored pencils or a range.
Caroline MacGregor: [00:08:31] Now, this exhibition opened on March 17th, and you had a reception and sales of the artwork. It does run through March 31st, is that correct? And tell me where exactly people can go.
Nora Krinitsky: Yeah, so like you said, the exhibition runs until March 31st. It takes place in the Duderstadt Gallery on the University of Michigan North Campus in Ann Arbor. The gallery hours are listed on our website. We're open every day, including on the weekends. And all of the art in the show is for sale. The proceeds of those sales go back to the artists themselves. Many of the artists rely on those sales to purchase supplies, as you were just asking about or to support themselves in other ways. So I'm hopeful that if your listeners visit, they'll consider making a purchase. There's also, our show is a great way to start your art collection if you're interested in doing that because there's really a wide range of accessible sales points. Some artists know their worth and have a high price tag, but many others, their art is very accessible, especially to students and young people.
Caroline MacGregor: I am curious about PCAP welcoming its first curatorial resident, Omari Booker, and he's a former incarcerated artist who apparently was part of collaborating with these other artists in prison. Can you tell me a little bit about him?
Nora Krinitsky: Absolutely. So, like you said, Omari Booker is our first resident curator. He is a painter from Nashville. And he is also, like you said, a formerly incarcerated person. He came to Ann Arbor a few times or came to Michigan a few time over the past year. He joined us on several of our visits to prison to meet with incarcerated artists and select art for the show. He was able to speak with many of the artists and connect with them and share experiences. He helped to plan the installation and visitors will also see in the gallery four paintings that Omari created himself that really are in conversation with the art that that is in the show that kind of highlights some of the themes that he saw and it's been a wonderful way to kind of expand our perspectives on the show and give our participants inside present a chance to connect with this remarkable artist. Yeah, the only other thing I'll add is that there are folks who aren't able to travel to the exhibition or even just folks who want to see it again. You can visit our website and we have a digital version of the exhibition there and where you can see the art and take it all in in that way as well.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay, excellent. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. You've been listening to 89.1 WEMU and I've been talking with Nora Kronitsky. She is the director of the Prison Creative Arts Project. It's been great to chat with you today. Thank you, I really appreciate it. And this is 89. 1 WEMFM Ypsilanti, your community NPR station.
