Explore a growing archive of media coverage, articles, and press releases that document the impact of our prison arts programs and the voices of artists behind and beyond the walls.

2025 MEDIA/Press/links

• Artwork from San Quentin Prison Arts Project at the San Francisco Opera | San Francisco Opera
• Prison Arts Project Installation and panel discussion at Hayward Public Library | Hayward
• Rehabilitation at SLO's California Men's Colony can include taking creative writing classes | New Times

2024 MEDIA/Press/links

• Taking Liberties: The Horrors and Humanities of Incarceration | Richmond Art Center
• ART BEYOND BARS: THE VIEW FROM HERE | Mural Arts
• The View From Here | Richmond Art Center 
• Incarcerated artists from different prison systems collaborate in ‘The View From Here’ | WHYY PBS
• Press Release: Exploring the Impact of Art in Prisons – Panel Discussion and Community Paint Day | Richmond Art Center
• Art Attitude: Interview with Julie McNiel from Prison Arts | Humboldt Hot Air

2023 MEDIA/Press/links

• Weekender: Gifting off the beaten path, Tammi Brown benefits and a nonprofit’s milestone  | LookOut Santa Cruz
• INCARCERATED WRITERS SHARE THEIR TALENT IN ANNUAL PUBLIC READING | San Quentin News
• Minnesota Street Projects Present We Shall Be Free, We Shall Find Peace | Minnesota Street Projects
• Visions of Transcendence: Creating Space in East and West | Wende Museum
• What the New Wave of Prison Arts Tells Us About Incarceration Today | The Marshall Project
• Brothers In Pen: Our 14th Annual Reading… briefly gorgeous | Brothers In Pen

2022 MEDIA/Press/links

• Santa Cruz’s Walt Whitman: Paul Lee’s legacy in Santa Cruz is immense, on campus and in town | LookOut Santa Cruz
• San Francisco Library Presents Prison Arts Project | San Francisco Public Library
• San Francisco Library Presents Brothers in Pen, Reading and Discussion | San Francisco Public Library
• A portrait of America’s prison arts programs | CNN Style Article
• Former San Quentin inmate shares how art changed their life | KRON 4

2021 MEDIA/Press/links

Eloise Pickard Smith: A Remarkable Woman, University of California Santa Cruz Centennial Exhibition

2016 MEDIA/Press/links

• Peter Merts' illuminating photos of Arts-in-Corrections in California State Prisons | Prison Photography

2014 MEDIA/Press/links

California State

• The Cell and The Sanctuary Exhibit Makes Case that Art-In-Prison Programs Reduce Recidivism | Prison Photography
• Arts-In-Corrections Program Returns to California Prisons | KCET
• Effort emerging to bring arts back to California prisons 89.3 KPCC
  California state senator Ted Lieu is among a group of lawmakers and arts advocates hoping to resurrect arts education programming at California prisons.
• Arts-in-Corrections to return to California state prisons, San Diego City Beat
• The arts resume behind bars as state agency renews funding - The Orange County Register
• Arts-In-Corrections Program Returns To California Prisons | KPBS The California Arts Council and the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation team up to fund art programs in state prisons including painting and playwriting courses Donovan State Prison in San Diego County.
• Arts in Corrections to return to California prisons with $1 million 89.3 KPCC  State prison arts program will return as soon as June with $1 million in funding from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
• Arts + Prison: Transforming Lives Behind Bars through the Arts | NEA
• Arts + Prison: Transforming Lives Behind Bars California | ArtBeat
• CAMILLE GAVIN: Arts Council on the right course - BakersfieldCalifornian.com
• UCLA lecturer's work on prison program allows inmates exposure to arts | Daily Bruin
• Inmates draw from creative palette at Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility | Inside CDCR

Bay Area Now 7 | Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

• For some at San Quentin, art a form of release - San Francisco Chronicle
  ...the San Quentin Prison Arts Project, which brings artists into the bayside fortress to teach visual art, creative writing, music and theater to men behind bars. Some of the fruits of the essential Prison Arts Project - which provided the model for the state's Art-in-Corrections program and stepped into the breach when that funding was cut around 2003 - will be on view in the Bay Area Now 7 show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco.
• Early Release: Incarcerated Artists Get a Chance to Exhibit Their Work Outside the Bay Area's Most Notorious Prison, SF Weekly
• SF/ARTS: Bay Area Now 7: Multidisciplinary Showcase
  Visitors may be surprised by the beauty and power of Inside Out, a section that includes 50 pieces by 30 inmates from the San Quentin Prison Arts Project.
• San Quentin's Prison Arts Project on Display at YBCA | KQED Arts
  Bay Area Now 7, the triennial exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, offers a rare opportunity to view the work of San Quentin inmates/artists
• Art will challenge viewers' senses - San Francisco Chronicle
  Rather than picking the artists themselves, as in previous Bay Area Now shows, YBCA curators sought proposals from local arts groups with the aim of widening the net, showcasing vital artists in many spheres and revealing the sweep of the art scene here.

San Quentin

• Civic Center: Sarah Cahill Plays Henry Cowell at San Quentin
• Liberating Henry Cowell's Music at San Quentin : San Francisco Classical Voice
• Will prison arts programs make a comeback in California? | KALW
  On a breezy summer day at San Quentin State Prison, inmate Paul Stauffer reads his writing to a live audience.
• Making Contact - Shh!: Words vs. Bars: How Prison Poets Escape - April 25, 2014 at 1:30pm | KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley: Listener Sponsored Free Speech Radio

Santa Cruz

• The Cell and the Sanctuary: Art and Incarceration: November 7, 2014, February 22, 2015 | Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History at the McPherson Center
• A splash of color in an institutional world - Register-Pajaronian, What was once a large expanse of grey concrete wall at the Santa Cruz County Rountree Detention Facility cafeteria now boasts a giant seascape mural, thanks to a group of 22 inmates who spent three months with paintbrushes in hand. The project was spearheaded by the William James Association Prison Arts Project, and Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office...
• Inmates complete mural at Santa Cruz County's Rountree jail - Santa Cruz Sentinel A blank, white wall in a cafeteria at the Rountree Detention Center came alive with color this summer with a new mural of the Santa Cruz Coast.

"Voices of Incarceration" at Loyola Marymount University

• Advocates for arts in prison to speak at LMU - Los Angeles Loyolan : Arts & Entertainment
  "Voices of Incarceration" Showcases Prisoners' Art - Los Angeles Loyolan : Arts & Entertainment
  Outside Looking In | The Argonaut Newspaper
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• Trust the Spirits on Vimeo by Benjamin Garcia Candelaria about artist and former San Quentin inmate Henry Frank.
• A former SLO inmate draws on real-life experiences for his role in the Web series 'Solitary' | Cover Story | Santa Maria Sun, CA
• AMY HO 'Para-Apparatus: Residency Projects': Kala Fellow Amy H. Ho - SFGate

Ronnie Goodman:

• GOOD MAN A Prison Arts Project Story on Vimeo "After spending over eight years at San Quentin, Ronnie Goodman got "another chance at life."
• Artnet news: Ronnie Goodman
• S.F. Marathon helps homeless runner Ronnie Goodman give back - SFGate
  Homeless runner Ronnie Goodman's story of longing to participate in the San Francisco Marathon in July so touched the race's organizers that they have made him a special part of the event. Race organizers are featuring him and his painting as a fundraiser for one of his favorite organizations - Hospitality House, a homeless resource center whose community arts program has helped Goodman hone his craft for years.
• Run with Ronnie! - SF Marathon
• Homeless Artist To Run Half Marathon For Charity That Helps People On The Streets, Ronnie Goodman might not have a comfortable place to rest his aching feet at night, but that's not keeping this homeless artist from running 13.1 miles next month in San Francisco's half marathon for charity.

The Actor's Gang:

• Prisoners take stage for Actors' Gang Prison Project - KESQ, It's theater behind bars, starring inmates of all races and prison sentences.
• Tim Robbins, Actors' Gang Help Inmates With Prison Project | Variety
• Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang Goes to Prison | Backstage
  The Actors' Gang has been awarded a grant to brings its Prison Project to correctional facilities around California.
• Tim Robbins joins California prisoners for acting workshops | Daily Mail Online, Inmates at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco took part in the acting workshop 'Commedia Dell'Arte', designed to help aid their rehabilitation.

Poetic Justice Project:

• New Times SLO Poetic Justice Project stages Commedia dell'arte play about the prison experience
• Guillermo Willie Open Studio - SLO Coast Journal

2013

• Marin men's book explores how the arts give inmates hope, heart Paths of Discovery: Art Practice and Its Impact in California Prisons. Vicki Larson, Marin Independent Journal
• Behind the Mask: Reducing Recidivism and Transforming Lives: Sabra Williams at TEDxCulverCity
• Adventures in Weseland: "On The Line"-San Quentin Prison Arts Project Exhibit, photos from San Francisco Library
• San Quentin Literary Voices Have Spoken, Brothers in Pen Blog
• Brothers in Pen: Creative writing from San Quentin, Julie Caine, KALW
• "John Brown's Body" at San Quentin Prison (5 minute promo)
  What began as a theater project in prison became a documentary film project about the prisoner-actors.
• San Quentin prisoners perform Shakespeare play about mercy, revenge -Megan Hansen, Marin Independent Journal
• Marin Shakespeare at San Quentin: Videos and Scripts
  Links to videos and scripts about Marin Shakespeare Company's weekly Shakespeare classes at San Quentin Prison.
• Actor-director Tim Robbins and guitarist Wayne Kramer show support for arts in prisons - latimes.com
  Local cultural leaders to voice their support on Friday for programs that bring the arts to prisons and other correctional facilities around the country at Joint Committee on the Arts hearing.
• BBC - The Actor's Gang
  Tim Robbins, star of The Shawshank Redemption, leads acting classes in LA's Norco Prison.
• Onward Through the Fog of Over-Incarceration - California Lawyers for the Arts Blog
• 'Follow Me Down' goes into the Louisiana prison system to learn something about music's effect on pain and struggle- Wallace Baine, the MUSE daily
• Behind Bars - Filmmaker depicts how music shapes the lives of the incarcerated- Dave DeGive, Good Times
• Filmmaker Ben Harbert on Louisiana prison music- Robert Pollie, 7th Ave Project: Thinking Persons Radio