Fresno State’s Graduate Art Studios will display artwork produced by men incarcerated at Avenal State Prison Friday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., beginning on April 5 through April 22 at the M Street Complex in Downtown Fresno.
The exhibition, which is part of the Center for Creativity and the Arts, is called “Insider Art: Exploring the Arts within Prison Environments,” and it will showcase over 100 pieces of art. There will also be an opportunity for attendees to see and hear performances by incarcerated men displayed on monitors.
Criminology department Chair Emma Hughes along with Fresno State’s College of Social Sciences; the College of Arts and Humanities; the Center for Creativity and the Arts; the department of art and design; and Project Rebound got together to showcase the artwork.
“It seemed a shame that so much beautiful work … was being produced in this environment, but that only a few people were getting to see it,” Hughes said in a news release. “It just seems really beneficial for people in the community to see it and for the men who produced this work to have a wider audience.”
A discussion panel will be held on April 4 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Alice Peters Auditorium as part of the exhibition. The panel will include Avenal State Prison warden Rosemary Ndoh and Doug Snell from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The exhibition will also be part of ArtHop on April 5 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.