INSIDE>OUT ART exists to promote greater understanding of the power of Prison Art Programs to spur healing, social connections, and positive change — and to feature today’s flourishing landscape of artwork created by incarcerated artists. We encourage our visitors to set aside bias and stereotype to take in the rich visual and narrative expressions of the artists represented here.

Although the first formal prison-based art programs in the United States appeared in the nineteenth-century, the wide-scale adoption of organized art programs began following a succession of tumultuous events during the 1960s and 1970s. The iconic Attica Prison Uprising served as a particularly influential catalyst for the proliferation of such programs.

In today’s prison art landscape, it helps look beyond the highly-commercialized tropes of tattoo artistry and fantasy portraiture to delve into the visual art programs that focus on the self-expression and growth of artists ‘on the inside.’ INSIDE>OUT ART features the voices of artists in the form of first-person narratives, a chance to explore influential exhibitions of work by incarcerated artists; a pilot marketplace called Art4U through which the public can commission original art; a series of interviews with artists, teachers, and organizers; and lists of resources including books, articles and leading prison art projects.