Mason Exhibitions Arlington will host an interactive theater experience with Voices Unbarred. Voices Unbarred employs a tactic of Theater of the Oppressed, a revolutionary art form that helps people analyze the world around them, explore social and political issues, and create solutions, to examine issues surrounding incarceration. It employs games, dialogue, and interaction between audience and performer. These ideas will serve as a framework for the development and evolution of stronger ideas for us to all take to heart and action!

Voices Unbarred will deploy their curated interactive program, Rehearsal for Change, where you'll engage with thought-provoking activities and witness real stories from people with lived carceral experience. In the final activity of the event, you'll break out into small groups to collectively brainstorm new policy ideas that reimagine the prison system.

About Voices Unbarred: Voices Unbarred, the programming arm of Ally Theatre Company, centers the voices of people impacted by incarceration and collaborates with theatre practitioners and policy organizations to creatively reimagine the prison system and advocate for change. At the core of Voices Unbarred’s strategy is organizing people directly affected by incarceration and centering their ideas. Voices Unbarred Community Advocates use their lived experience and learned theatre techniques to advocate for themselves and the changes they want to see in the system. This includes changing current prison conditions, working towards the end of mass incarceration, exploring restorative justice and other approaches to healing harm, shifting disparaging narratives about people who have been impacted by incarceration, and exposing the systemic racism and intersectional systems that funnel a disproportionate amount of Black community members into jails and prisons.

Former Rehearsal for Change YouTube video

Questions about this event should be emailed to Alissa Maru (mailto:amaru@gmu.edu).

Join Mason Exhibitions and Sofar Sounds on Friday, March 22 from 8-10pm. You’ll see 2 or 3 short sets from incredible performers from all musical genres, and sometimes even spoken word, comedy or dance. Each show’s lineup is curated by our artist booking team to be diverse and varied. Grab your ticket and get ready to discover your new favorite artist!

Head over to Sofar Sounds’ YouTube channel to check out past shows and see some of today's biggest artists who played small, intimate Sofar shows along their journey!

More information about Sofar Sounds:

Sofar Sounds is a global music community that connects artists and audiences through live music. We bring people together to create space where music matters in 400 cities around the world.

Sofar Sounds Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/sofarsounds

This event is in conjunction with the Faces of Resilience currently on view at Mason Exhibitions Arlington.

Join us on Friday, March 15, 7-9pm at Mason Exhibitions Arlington to witness and participate in The Innocents & Disappearance Jail Punch Party with Maria Gaspar.

The Innocents provide a dramatic soundscape which endeavor to explore various aspects of the issues surrounding wrongful imprisonment and exoneration in the American criminal justice system. Enveloping the soundscape will be a commissioned sonic sculpture of decommissioned jail bars of Maria Gaspar, exploring how these artifacts  transfigure what were once materials of confinement into new experiences of liberation.

Additionally Gaspar will lead a ‘punch party’ where Gaspar aims to abol­ish carceral spaces by incorporating prints of current Virginia carceral spaces into the Disappearance Jails project. These prints will be obscured through perforations by exhibition visitors.

Maria Gaspar is an interdisciplinary artist whose work addresses issues of spatial justice in order to amplify, mobilize, or divert structures of power through individual and collective gestures. In collaboration with George Mason University’s data mapping and art history scholars, Gaspar will continue to realize her goals of abolishing carceral spaces by adding prints of current prisons, jails, and immigrant detention facilities in Virginia to the Disappearance Jails project, which will ultimately be obscured through perforations by exhibition visitors.

The Innocents is a social justice advocacy performance art piece by musicians and composers Allen Otte and John Lane. Using a variety of found-object and home-made instruments, electronic soundscapes, and spoken texts, the one-hour dramatic soundscape will explore various aspects of the issues surrounding the American criminal justice system.

John Lane is an artist whose creative work and collaborations extend through percussion to poetry/ spoken word and theater. As a performer, he has appeared on stages throughout the Americas, Australia, and Japan. As an advocate of social justice he co-created with Allen Otte The Innocents which the duo has performed throughout the US, including appearances at the Innocence Network Conference, Woody Guthrie Center, and Atlanta’s Center for Civil and Human Rights. He has recorded two albums: The Landscape Scrolls (Starkland Records, 2018), TRIGGER: Artists Respond to Gun Violence (Albany Records, 2021). John is the Professor of Percussion at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. www.john-lane.com

Allen Otte was a cofounder of the Blackearth Percussion Group and of Percussion Group Cincinnati, and toured for decades throughout the world performing new and experimental music created for him and his colleagues. Otte regularly presents his own creative work, often in residencies centered around the theme of performing social justice, and is the regular percussionist with the early music quartet Trobar Medieval. He is professor Emeritus, University of Cincinnati, and in 2017 was inducted into the International Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.

Program Note: This approximately one hour dramatic soundscape is comprised of seventeen individual tableaus which endeavor to explore various aspects of the issues surrounding wrongful imprisonment and exoneration in the American criminal justice system: mistaken identity, incarceration, psychology, politics, injustice, and resilience. Though we do this from our admittedly privileged perspective, we have available not only the information – both factual and testimonial – but, significantly, we have resources of a time and sound-based art. In performance we have the opportunity to direct and focus not only attention, but more importantly, to engage on an emotional level where experience is more than simply processing facts and figures.

Questions should be emailed to Alissa Maru at amaru@gmu.edu

To enhance the engagement with the content of mass incarceration within Faces of Resilience, Mason Exhibitions is hosting a film screening of Since I Been Down, a film by Gilda Shepard. Gilda and Kimonti have prepared a special message just for the Mason Exhibitions audience!

Meet Kimonti Carter : Former president and current member of an over 40-year Washington State prisoner-initiated program, the Black Prisoners’ Caucus. At 34, Kimonti founded TEACH (Taking Education and Creating History), a remarkably innovative prisoner education program

Kimonti and a group of his peers maneuver through a non-negotiable pathway to joining gangs as early as 11-years-old. This is a community profoundly impacted by the city's disinvestment in housing, education, and employment as well as our policies in the 1990's

The film, told by the people who have lived these conditions, unravels intimate stories from interviews brought to life through archival footage, cinema verité discussions, masquerade, and dance , unravelling why children commit violent crime and how these children – now adults – are breaking free from their fate by creating a model of justice that is transforming their lives, our humanity and a quality of life for all our children.

Light refreshments will be served

Questions should be emailed to Alissa Maru at amaru@gmu.edu

Thursday, February 22, 2024 @ 4:45 pm - 6:30 pm 
MARIA GASPAR

Maria Gaspar is an interdisciplinary artist negotiating the politics of location through installation, sculpture, sound, and performance. Gaspar’s work addresses issues of spatial justice in order to amplify, mobilize, or divert structures of power through individual and collective gestures. In collaboration with George Mason University’s data mapping and art history scholars, Gaspar will continue to realize her goals of abolishing carceral spaces by adding  prints of current prisons, jails, and immigrant detention facilities in Virginia to the Disappearance Jails project, which will ultimately be obscured through perforations by exhibition visitors.

This event will be held via Zoom. RSVP is required for Zoom link.

Contact Jeffrey Kenney with questions/concerns (mailto:jkenney5@gmu.edu)

Join us on Friday, February 16, 2024, 7-9pm for an Incarcerated Salon curated by artist Carlos Walker, who will kick off the night with a Political Rap Battle performance.

There will be a variety of musical performances, spoken word poetry, and other creative presentations. The microphone will be open to any audience members who would like to perform!

Faces of Resilience features works by 14 previously or currently incarcerated artists who participate in year-round art workshops at SCI Phoenix, Southeast Pennsylvania’s maximum-security prison for men located 33 miles outside of Philadelphia. The exhibit is supplemented by the works of three professional artists: Maria Gaspar, Sara Bennett, and the late Winfred Rembert (1945–2021).

Questions about the event should be directed to Alissa Maru at amaru@gmu.edu

Join us on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 for a Virtual Artist Talk with some of the many artists in the Faces of Resilience exhibition, including Sara Bennett, Ronald Connelly, and Luis 'Suave' Gonzalez.

Faces of Resilience features works by 14 previously or currently incarcerated artists who participate in year-round art workshops at SCI Phoenix, Southeast Pennsylvania’s maximum-security prison for men located 33 miles outside of Philadelphia. The exhibit is supplemented by the works of three professional artists: Maria Gaspar, Sara Bennett, and the late Winfred Rembert (1945–2021).

Questions about the event should be directed to Alissa Maru at amaru@gmu.edu

Visual Voices is an online lecture series hosted by Mason Exhibitions and the School of Art and Design. This event will be held in Enterprise Hall room 80 on Thursday, October 26 @ 4:45pm-6:30pm.

Enterprise Hall is building #17 on the campus map and paid visitor parking is available in the Sandy Creek Parking Deck.

Sherrill Roland’s interdisciplinary practice deals with concepts of innocence, identity, and community; reimagining their social and political implications in the context of the American criminal justice system. For more than three years, Roland's right to self-determination was lost to a wrongful incarceration. After spending ten months in prison for a crime he was later exonerated for, he returned to his artistic practice, which he now uses as a vehicle for self-reflection and an outlet for emotional release. Converting the haunting nuances of his experiences into drawings, sculptures, multimedia objects, performances, and participatory activities, Roland shares his story and creates space for others to do the same, illuminating the invisible costs, damages, and burdens of incarceration.

Questions about this event should be directed to Jeff Kenney at jkenney5@gmu.edu

Mason Exhibitions and the Native American and Indigenous Alliance will host a film screening of "Art of Incarceration" in the Johnson Center Cinema on Friday, October 20 from 7-9pm. Food will be provided!

The Johnson Center is Building #29 on the campus map and paid visitor parking is available in the Mason Pond Parking Deck.

"Art of Incarceration" provides a view through the eyes of First Nations prisoners at Victoria's Fulham Correctional Centre in Australia, exploring how culture and art can empower Indigenous people to transcend their unjust cycles of imprisonment.

This film will enumerate many of the issues we are confronted with in the Faces of Resilience exhibition in Buchanan Hall Atrium Gallery from September 11-November 3.

Questions about the event or exhibition should be directed to Yassmin Salem at ysalem@gmu.edu

Join Mason Exhibitions and the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution for a daylong Art & Incarceration Symposium on Saturday, October 14, 10am-5pm in Room D023 of Buchanan Hall on the Fairfax Campus. The closest parking is in Mason Pond Parking Deck.

You will hear three panel discussions featuring formerly incarcerated individuals, scholars, artists, and more discussing the current carceral system in the US and what needs to change! Food will be provided throughout the day.

Program:

10am-11am Breakfast food/coffee and juice served upon arrival

11am-12pm Exhibition Partner Panel

• Barnes Foundation, Carter School, Mural Arts Philly, Mason Exhibitions/Provisions Library

12-1:30pm Lunch break on your own

1:30-3:00 pm Artist Panel 

• Ronald Connelly and Suave Gonzalez from Faces of Resilience

• Mark Strandquist from Performing Statistics

• Nick Ritter and Victoria Mendoza from Poetry Alive!

3:00-3:15 pm short break

3:15-4:45 pm Scholarly Panel 

• Dr. Keesha Middlemass from Howard U

• Dr. Janani Umamaheswar at GMU

• Maria Valdovinos (phD candidate) at GMU 

• Liz Komar from Sentencing Project

4:45-5pm Reception with food/beverages in the gallery

The 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution abolished slavery except when a crime has been committed. This exception left a major loophole in the amendment that has allowed mass incarceration to continue in the United States. 

Mason Exhibitions and the Center for Culture, Equity, and Empowerment will host a film screening of "13th", in the Johnson Center Cinema on Friday, October 13 from 7-9pm. Food will be provided!

The Cinematographer, Hans Charles, will kick off the evening with a few words!

The Johnson Center is Building #29 on the campus map and paid visitor parking is available in the Mason Pond Parking Deck.

In "13th", filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.

This film relates to the Faces of Resilience exhibition in Buchanan Hall Atrium Gallery from September 11-November 3.

Questions about this event or the exhibition should be emailed to Yassmin Salem at ysalem@gmu.edu

Kritikos Anti-Racist Reading Group 

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. - James Baldwin

Fridays, 1-2:30 pm, September 29 – November 10

 Please join us for our first topic: Felony Disenfranchisement

 1-2:30 pm on October 13, 2023 

This event is free and open to the public.

Visit https://cvpa.gmu.edu/events/arts-context/kritikos-anti-racist-reading-group for details.

Dear Mason Friends and Neighbors:

Inspired by mass actions and worldwide protests demanding racial justice, CVPA’s Arts in Context continues the Kritikos Anti-Racist Reading Group this semester, moderated by Mason faculty members Jessica Kallista and Kristin Johnsen-Neshati, with help from co-organizers, Cynthia Fuchs, Jordan McRae, and Sang Nam.

Members of the community are called to meet this semester for a 90-minute session once a week with a goal of long-term commitment to relationship building, awareness, reimagining, transformation, and action, around anti-racist practices, racial justice, and the creation of conversations as well as systems of compassion and healing. We continue to focus on anti-Black racism and its effects on society. 
 
Grounded in the knowledge that it is not a question of whether we are racist, but rather, how racism is expressed and experienced in ourselves, our lives, our behaviors, and our institutions, we explore books, music, art, essays, podcasts, and documentaries that allow us to critically question and consider our roles as artists, thinkers, citizens, and creatives in a society founded on racist values and practices.

—The Kritikos Anti-Racist Reading Group Organizing Committee