This series is devoted to an ongoing dialogue wrestling with the questions of why folks make art and its significance to the individual and our culture. We welcome feedback, discussion, and outside contributions – email comments to ws@thedetroiter.com

Part One: The Big Yellow Taxi Theory or Mr. Cope Goes to Turkmenistan
Part Two: New Eyes or How many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky?
Part Three: Paint the Town Orange
Part Four: Dances with Dirt
Part Five: Walk a mile in someone’s shoes - or Gimme Shelter
Part 6: Automation or Love a Luddite
Part 7: Shrinking Cities
Part 8: Let’s Get Critical

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been running this occasional series on why we do art and its significance. For Work : Detroit’s second show (opening this weekend (November 17, 2007), I have the opportunity to put together a widely diverse body of artists and ask them why they do what they do and include their responses as a significant part of the exhibition. Viewers will get a chance to read, hear, and see their answers and have a chance to have a bit of this conversation with each artist as well. I’m thrilled to have all those different voices side by side in the gallery space, and I think it’s a truly educational experience. In coming to better understand these particular people, we not only can appreciate where they are coming from better, we can also begin to look at ourselves in a new light, and explore new possibilities for creativity within all of us.

As is often the case when I’m thinking intently on a particular thing, I become more sensitized to picking up on related things going on around me. And so we turn to last Friday night. I’m in FOCUS : Hope’s art gallery listening to intense, deeply expressed, poetry readings by people formerly incarcerated, their mentors, and supporters. The event is the opening of “Are We Community: A Linkage Exhibition of Art II,” put on by the Prison Creative Arts Program (PCAP) which features the art works of these former prisoners and offers the viewer a chance to gain a new appreciation for these people, not simply as a label – “prisoner,” but as human beings full of creative potential.

Founded in 1990, PCAP’s mission is to about working with the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated “to strengthen communities through creative expression.” Furthermore, they state a belief that, “everyone has the capacity to create art; that art is necessary for individual and societal growth, connection, and survival; and that art should be accessible to all.” This mission of accessibility and community is clearly on display. It’s a joyous occasion with everyone supporting everyone, people from academia mingling with people who spent time behind bars, and all exchanging smiles, handshakes, and hugs.

The readings are amazing – from the surreally silly to the political to the gut wrenchingly painful – it’s real and it’s human. In hearing their words and the stories told with them, it’s evident what a source of empowerment this writing program has been. I think of my own writing and public speaking students at Wayne State, and how important learning to use their voices, to express their words has been for them. The arts do have the power to transform people – these confident speakers demonstrate that absolutely.

At a time when we continue to cut school art programs, building prisons has become big business. People need constructive outlets for their energy; we need healthy things to do. In his interview for “WHY,” Topher Crowder described his drawings as a release, and that much like emotions, if the creativity is not released, if it’s pented up, it turns to anger and depression. This is evident in the art on display at FOCUS: Hope, from the more expressive to the illustrational, it’s an outlet, it’s a way of learning about the world and seeing it in a new way, and it’s a means of expression.

Janie Paul, who works with the Prison Creative Arts Program and serves as the curator for the annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners (in the spring), in her interview for “WHY” states that art for adults and children enduring such difficult situations is “freedom.” And on this celebratory night, the truth in her words is a beautiful thing to witness.

So check out “Are We Community” in the FOCUS : Hope gallery and come on by this weekend to learn “WHY” at Work : Detroit. - Nick Sousanis
ws@thedetroiter.com

Saturday, November 17
Exhibition Opening: Why: Why we make creative work, from the people who make it.
6:00-9:00pm
Work : Detroit
UM Detroit Center, 3663 Woodward, Detroit

Statements from artist/designers from Detroit and UM discussing what motivates their creative output are paired with those pieces that speak to their motivations. Exhibitors include: Shiva Ahmadi, Lynne Avadenka, David Barr, Adnan Charara, Jim Cogswell, Larry Cressman, Topher Crowder, DMC, Denise Fanning, Beverly Fishman, Phoebe Gloeckner, Adrian Hatfield, Sadashi Inuzuka, Charles McGee, Anne Mondro, Janie Paul, Ted Ramsay, Kathy Rashid, Stephen Schudlich, Sintex, Gilda Snowden, Nick Tobier, Ed West, and Elizabeth Youngblood.

Exhibition Website: www.whyproject.blogspot.com.

Are We Community: A Linkage Exhibition of Art II
FOCUS: Hope

A thought-provoking exhibit of artwork created by formerly incarcerated artists and their mentors. Entitled “Are We Community: A Linkage Exhibition of Art II,” the exhibit is presented in partnership with Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP).
The exhibit of more than 75 works of art sheds light on the talents of formerly incarcerated citizens and encourages the public to consider the challenges facing these citizens when they are released from prison.

The exhibit is open to the public at no charge. Focus: HOPE Gallery is at 1400 Oakman Boulevard, Detroit. It is located on the second floor.