Arts + Justice

Amy Elkins, The Golden State, 2017. Photo by artist. Exhibition at Frank M. Doyle Arts Pavilion, Orange Coast College. Costa Mesa, CA

Stanford Arts Institute is collaborating on a series of workshops and student grants.

Now in its second year, the Arts + Justice program, led by the Stanford Arts Institute, is partnering with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the Theater and Performance Studies department to bring artists and scholars to the campus community. Through a Research Workshop Series and the Arts + Justice Student Grant, this program aims to reimagine the art of social justice.

Other Campus Initiatives

Many organizations and groups on campus work with incarcerated communities.

Stanford's Prison Renaissance chapter collaborates with artists in San Quentin State Prison to create a zine called Incarceratedly Yours.
Jamie Meltzer, Associate Professor of Art & Art History and Program Director of the M.F.A. Program in Documentary Film, received both Sundance Institute and MarArthur grants for his 2017 film True Conviction.
Janice Ross, Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies, teaches Prisons and Performance and Dance in Prison: The Arts, Juvenile Justice, and Rehabilitation in America.
The Camera as Witness Program utilizes the medium of documentary film to educate the Stanford community about human rights, energy policy, immigration, and many other topics and disciplines. Many documentaries featured in the program have focused on incarceration, including Kingsley, which was presented in 2018.
Amy Elkins, Stanford MFA candidate, has several ongoing series that look at incarceration, including The Golden State and Parting Words, both of which focus on people serving death row sentences.

Advisory Board

Jennifer Brody, Professor, Theater and Performance Studies and Director of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity

Emile DeWeaver, Co-Director of Prison Renaissance at Stanford

Jamie Meltzer, Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies, and Director of True Conviction (2017) and Huntsville Station (2020).

Jisha Menon, Associate Professor, Theater and Performance Studies, Director, Stanford Arts Institute

Debbie Mukamal, Executive Director, Stanford Criminal Justice Center

Janice Ross, Professor, Theater and Performance Studies

Rose Salseda, Assistant Professor, Art and Art History

Selby Schwartz, Lecturer, Program in Writing and Rhetoric and Co-Director of Prison Renaissance at Stanford

David Sklansky, Professor of Law, Co-Director of Stanford Criminal Justice Center

Featured News & Events

Watch the Recording: The Future of Law & Literature

Originally recorded November 5, 2020

In this final fall quarter installment of the Arts + Justice Research Workshop Series, our panel interrogated the future directions of Law and Literature. As we approach the 50th year of Law and Literature as an established field and arrive at the 20th anniversary of Robert Weisberg + Guyora Binder’s seminal text, Literary Criticisms of Law, a discussion of this field and its importance is perhaps more prescient than ever. Watch this panel recording of scholars Guyora Binder, Bernadette Meyler, Austin D. Sarat, and Robert Weisberg discuss a discipline at the intersectional crux of arts and justice, legal studies and the humanities. Moderated by Aishwary Kumar.

Sponsored by the Stanford Humanities Center. Cosponsored by the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, the Stanford Arts Institute, and Theater and Performance Studies.

More Information

Arts + Justice Student Grant

Applications are due November 30, 2020 at 11:59pm (PST)

The Arts + Justice Student Grant will fund undergraduate and graduate students as they investigate urgent matters around justice issues and the arts. Grants up to $1,000 are available to Stanford undergraduate, co-terminal, and graduate students.

Students may apply for the grant with a year-long creative project related to any number of justice issues including, but not limited to:

Race Equity
Environmentalism
Mass Incarceration
Mental Health
LGBTQ+ Equity
Affordable Healthcare

NYTimes Op-Docs: The 'Surreal' Moment After Release From Prison

Huntsville Station (2020). Film by Jamie Meltzer and Chris Filippone.

When inmates are released from Huntsville Unit, the oldest state prison in Texas, the first destination for many is the nearby Greyhound bus station. Every weekday, the bus station becomes a site of reflection for men who’ve spent months, or decades, imprisoned. The short documentary above was filmed before the pandemic but captures the precarious period experienced by the estimated 600,000 people released annually from federal and state prisons across the country. With nothing much more than the clothes on their backs, a bus voucher and a $100 release check, these formerly incarcerated men grapple with the excitement and uncertainty that come with freedom.

Jamie Meltzer is a filmmaker and associate professor of the M.F.A. program in documentary film at Stanford. Chris Filippone is a filmmaker and educator based in Oakland.

Watch the Short Documentary

Visit the Exhibition

Open Call for Clemency

Presented by The Confined Arts (TCA) and Release Aging People from Prison (RAPP)

The Confined Arts (TCA) and Release Aging People from Prison (RAPP) presents Open Call for Clemency, an online exhibition featuring works by artists who are currently incarcerated. The works reflect on personal responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the urgency and importance of clemency. Due to new COVID-19-related communication restrictions imposed in jails and prisons, many artists are not able to share their work or access materials to create new work at this time. This exhibition persists in spite of these limitations. The goal of this exhibition is to emphasize the humanity of those who are incarcerated, share their works as widely as possible, and ultimately reach the Governors’ offices, to advocate for clemency.

The Million Book Project

A new project supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Million Book Project, spearheaded by Reginald Dwayne Betts, marks the first major grant since the announcement of the Foundation’s new strategic direction – one that grounds all its grantmaking in the arts, culture, humanities, and higher learning in social justice. This vital initiative will distribute a curated 500-book collection to 1,000 medium- and maximum-security prisons in every state across the US over the next three and a half years.

The recorded discussion addressed what it means to extend access to literature across the American prison system, and to affirm the right of those who are incarcerated to engage in the exchange of ideas and stories that invigorate American society.

Listen to the Discussion

NEWS: "PCAP associate helps to create monologues on incarceration and coronavirus"

"Michigan alumna Leia Squillace is one of the creators of this edition of The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues, which aims to amplify the firsthand experience and perspective of those impacted by incarceration. The play, entitled COVID & Incarceration, joins a movement advocating for justice through health. The monologues can be viewed on IGVT on Instagram and on Facebook."

Read full article by Fernanda Pires here.

University of Michigan's Prison Creative Arts Project "brings those impacted by the justice system and the University of Michigan community into artistic collaboration for mutual learning and growth."

Contact:

Devin Garnick
Program Manager, Stanford Arts Institute
dgarnick@stanford.edu