Printmaking Inside the Prison Industrial Complex
Virtual Artist Talk with Aaron Hughes, William Estrada, & Sarah Ross
Resident Artist Aaron Hughes is an artist, curator, organizer, teacher, anti-war activist, and Iraq War veteran. He is also an educator with the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project (P+NAP) where he and his colleagues William Estrada and Sarah Ross have taught printmaking to people incarcerated at Stateville Prison.
During this virtual talk, these three artists will discuss both the power of printmaking for individuals in prison, and the limitations of art education within the larger prison system.
They will also present P+NAP’s newest publication, Carving Out Rights from Inside the Prison Industrial Complex (Hat & Beard Press). The book features 30 brilliantly crafted foam block prints— one for each article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights— made by artists at Stateville Prison whose daily struggle for their own human rights is even more pronounced during a global pandemic in which they are denied basic PPE, healthcare, and safety. Collectively, these prints reject the dehumanization perpetuated by the prison system, and claim the dignity of universal, inalienable human rights.
Please join us for an engaging conversation about art, prison abolition, and visions of human rights from inside the carceral state.