PRISON ARTS
The Prison Arts Program brings art, music, dance,
speakers and cultural
classes into the state's correctional institutions and facilities. Study of the
Arts teaches literacy, geography, civics, interpersonal relationships and
cultural awareness. This enables art students to bring about unity from
diversity within their incarceration period and provide them with a new look and
appreciation of the outside community when they are released. Art education
boosts inmates' literacy skills and sense of self worth. The study of arts and
culture by prison inmates has been proven to teach discipline as well as
creativity; helping them to get and keep jobs on the outside. The arts help
build the self esteem inmates need in order to become successful members of
society. Approximately 1,000 adult offenders participate in the DE Prison Arts
Program.
Topics offered to inmate students since 1986 include:
| Basic & Advanced Art Classes | The Buffalo Soldiers | ||
| The Lives of Great Artists | Jazz Greats | ||
| Chinese Brushwork | The Kalmar Nyckel Ship | ||
| The Civil War: | Native American Indians | ||
| The Confederacy & The Union | NASCAR | ||
| Underground Railroad | Early Schools of Delaware | ||
| U.S. Colored Troops | Railways | ||
| Aviation: | Wildlife | ||
| Flight in World War I | Landscapes | ||
| Female Pilots of World War II | Lighthouses | ||
| World War II: | |||
| Tuskeegee Airmen | |||
Dozens of murals have been created with subjects including - scenic, historical and anti-drug subjects which are displayed in correctional institutions and public buildings statewide and also in Washington, D.C.
HISTORY
The Prison Arts Program has been an active part of the Delaware Department of Correction since 1979, when a volunteer was hired to direct the program. The program started at the old Women's Correctional Institution (WCI) in Claymont and at the Delaware Correctional Center (DCC) in Smyrna. That same year, another Prison Arts volunteer artist from Sussex County, Jack Lewis, began providing bi-annual art lessons to lifers at the Sussex Correctional Institution (SCI) in Georgetown with annual grants from the Sussex County Council.
In 1983 a new director for the Prison Arts Program was hired, following the first Director's move out of state.
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| 17th Century Galleon Ship Model - Built by Inmate |
In 1986, Kay Wood Bailey was named the first statewide Administrator of the Prison Arts Program. Mrs. Bailey retired in May 2002. Full-time paid teachers also provide exciting classes for statewide inmate students.
Art classes are currently ongoing at the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution (Gander Hill) in Wilmington; at the Delores J. Baylor Women's Correctional Institution in New Castle; at the Delaware Correctional Center in Smyrna and at the Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown.
In 1989, Mrs. Bailey founded the International Correctional Arts Network (I-CAN) at the request of the American Correctional Association (ACA), which is the umbrella group for correctional professionals. She has won local, national and international awards for her work with I-CAN, including third place in the National Federation of Press Women's Contest for her editing of the I-CAN Quarterly and the Winston Churchill Crown Award from Great Britain.
