This short documentary is tied to an exhibition from September 2024 at the Berkeley Art Center called Painting Ourselves Into Society
Join us for a documentary about an art exhibit Painting Ourselves Into Society, which was on display at Berkeley Art Center from September 21st, 2024 to January 12th, 2025. The film explores the power of inclusion and how art can serve as a vehicle for it. It focuses on curator Orlando "O." Smith and traces how the curatorial project emerged and was presented, including the stories of two other exhibiting artists.
Film screening from 11 - 12:30pm on Wednesday April 8th
Central Library Community Meeting Room, 3rd floor
From the Berkeley Art Center exhibition webpage:
Curatorial statement
"The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth," — African Proverb
"A person is a person because of other people," — Rev. Desmond Tutu.
Empowerment Avenue asked incarcerated artists what does it mean to paint yourself into society? What does it look like to show that we are still part of the community? This prompt came after reflecting on, what unites our states? Poverty exacerbated by the exclusion of minorities from fair chances at economic opportunities, drug addiction, mental health issues, and the largest prison system in the world. Our prison system punishes the symptoms of society’s ills under the guise of public safety. We bear witness that prisons do not make us safer. Incarceration warehouses human beings in trauma, denies them voting rights, extracts slave labor, and keeps us separated from love ones, then releases people in the desperate circumstances of being branded by their crimes, strained relationships due to separation, being almost penniless despite decades of prison labor, and in most cases, without a home. Today we come together to overcome the limitations of the Prison Industrial Complex, by bringing the art and voices of incarcerated people right into our living room.
Curated by:
Orlando Smith & Rahsaan Thomas
Exhibiting Artists:
Cedar Annenkovna, Corey Arthur, Mark A Cádiz, De’jon Joy, Jessie Milo, Joanna Nixon, Jared Owens, Alvin Smith
*Event image taken from a painting by Alvin Smith.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Movies, Music & Performance | Cultural & Heritage | Creative | Community Event |
