prison creative arts program

Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit is creating change. Washtenaw County has joined communities across the world using art + creativity to detour youth away from the justice system. Eli talks about his office’s decision to add preventative creative programs and its partnership with Washtenaw My Brother’s Keeper and the Vera Institute of Justice on this "creative:impact" with show co-hosts Deb Polich of Creative Washtenaw and WEMU’s David Fair.

Just a few months into the year, life changed for everyone, including local artists, due to a global health crisis.  Lisa Barry talks with Omari Rush, executive director of CultureSource and Chair of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, about how that impacted the visual arts community and how that community will be changed in the coming years due to that impact.

On this week's "Art & Soul: The Visual Arts," WEMU's Lisa Barry is joined by Omari Rush, executive director of CultureSource and chair of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and Nora Krinitsky, Interim Director of the Prison Creative Arts Project at the University of Michigan.

They talk about the program, its 25th annual exhibition, and creative expression as a human right.

We often talk about how art makes a difference in the quality of our lives.  Imagine if that life was playing out in a prison.  The Prison Creative Arts Project at the University of Michigan began exploring that reality nearly three decades ago, and, as WEMU’s David Fair and Deb Polich from the Arts Alliance found out, it is changing lives.  They speak to two of the project's instructors, Vanessa Mayesky and Cozine Welch, Jr., in this week's "creative:impact."