Milestones

2008
2009
2010

Michelle Alexander publishes The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (The New Press, 2010).

Advancing New Narratives through Art
2014
2016

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation awards Artist as Activist Fellowships to support 10 U.S.-based artists and artist collectives whose work addresses the epidemic of mass incarceration.

Advancing New Narratives through Art

Agnes Gund sees Ava DuVernay’s documentary 13th, which highlights the 13th Amendment’s perpetuation of chattel slavery through mass incarceration. Gund is moved to sell a favorite painting in her collection, Masterpiece by Roy Lichtenstein, to dedicate $100M from the sale to launch the Art for Justice Fund.

Advancing New Narratives through Art
Ava DuVernay. Courtesy of Array.
2017
2018

Equal Justice Initiative opens The Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, providing a comprehensive history of slavery in the U.S., including mass incarceration.

Advancing New Narratives through Art
2019

Fair and Just Prosecution and Mural Arts Philadelphia launch a groundbreaking artist-in-residence program at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. James “Yaya” Hough is selected.

Advancing New Narratives through Art
Lorem ipsum 2019
Artists, advocates, and public officials at launch event for the artist-in-residence program. Courtesy of Mural Arts Philadelphia.
2020

A major art exhibition, Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, opens a six-month run at MoMA PS1. Guest curated by Dr. Nicole R. Fleetwood, the exhibition followed the publication of her groundbreaking book on carceral aesthetics. Fleetwood’s exhibition monograph wins the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism in 2021.

Advancing New Narratives through Art
Mark Loughney's Pyrrhic Defeat: A Visual Study of Mass Incarceration, (2014-present) at MoMA PS1. Photo by Erin Baiano.
2021

Clyde’s, a play by Lynn Nottage that centers the lives of formerly incarcerated people, opens on Broadway and is nominated for five Tony Awards.

Advancing New Narratives through Art
Uzo Aduba and cast of Clyde's. Photo by Erin Baiano.
2022
2023

Ford Foundation Gallery opens No Justice Without Love—curated by Daisy Desrosiers, director of the Gund Gallery at Kenyon College—focused on the voices, experiences, and artistic practices of those most directly impacted by the criminal legal system.

Advancing New Narratives through Art
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