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.
Featured News & Events

Thursday, October 8 from 4:30-6pm PDT via Zoom
Join Dr. Jennifer Nash in conversation with Dr. Charles Kronengold as they discuss her forthcoming work (pre-circulated in advance to those who RSVP). The first ten to RSVP to this event will also receive a complimentary copy of Nash’s Black Feminism Reimagined After Intersectionality (2019). Led by Professor Jisha Menon and the collective energy of graduate students, this event is a part of the “Arts + Justice” Geballe Workshop Series of the Stanford Humanities Center. Throughout the year, we hope to engage with scholars and artists on the implications of justice (in all of its range of meanings), including the cultural terrain of law, aesthetics of resistance, practices of restorative justice, and the position of art within these debates.
Please RSVP to receive a Zoom link. To continue to receive updates about our happenings, please subscribe to the listserv arts_justice@lists.stanford.edu.
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.

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.
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.


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."
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

Contact:
Stanford Arts Institute
artsinstitute@stanford.edu