Prison Arts Collective to Receive NEA Research Grant
National Endowment for the Arts grant will focus research on wellness for individuals and communities who are incarcerated.
Prison Arts Collective (PAC) has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to receive a Research Grants in the Arts award of $65,000 over three years. This is the first time the NEA has awarded this particular, competitive grant.
This funding will support research that looks at the impact of the arts on wellness for individuals and communities who are incarcerated. The research team includes SDSU professor and PAC founder and Director Annie Buckley as Principal Investigator (PI) together with Dr. Brian Heisterkamp, professor of Communication Studies at CSUSB, as co-PI, and Ginny Oshiro and Bryant Jackson-Green, doctoral students in Criminology, Law and Society, and Social Ecology and Law School, respectively, from UC Irvine.
In total, the NEA will award 20 Research Grants in the Arts for a total of $1.075 million in funding to support a broad range of arts-related studies, many of which strive to understand how factors related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility can improve the efficacy of arts management and cultural policies.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support Prison Arts Collective, part of the NEA’s investment in studies that explore the value and impact of the arts,” said Director of Research & Analysis Sunil Iyengar. “Research studies such as this one are key to our agency’s goal of understanding the factors, conditions, and characteristics of our country’s arts ecosystem and the many ways the arts can impact other areas of American life.”
PAC provides visual and interdisciplinary arts programming to people experiencing incarceration in California state prisons. The project offers a vibrant and effective approach to rehabilitation through multidisciplinary arts programming that integrates principles of restorative justice through a rich and varied approach to the creative process.
"I wish to thank you for including me in your class/program. It is a necessary class, for it gives us inmates something to do and something to learn, and while you keep us busy doing something positive, it also keeps us away from the negative things!"
- Calipatria State Prison Participant (2020)
