Talk: Art Educator Phyllis Kornfeld on Criminal Justice and the Arts

Presented in conjunction with The Pencil Is a Key: Drawings by Incarcerated Artists, Phyllis Kornfeld—an art educator who has been teaching art in US prisons for nearly forty years—will present an illustrated lecture featuring artwork by incarcerated people from across the country. Kornfeld will speak about the ability of these works to express beauty, dignity, creativity, and even humor and joy, as well as her first-hand experiences with the artists.

Phyllis Kornfeld is the author of Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America, (Princeton University Press). She curates exhibitions for university and museum galleries of the work produced in over 36 years of her prison art programs. She lectures, leads workshops, and writes for journals and magazines. She founded several public projects whereby prison artists donated art to benefit people in need. The Envelope Project: Incarcerated Men and Women Making Art for a Cause sold hundreds of original envelope art at the Outsider Art Fair to support a children’s literacy program.