Current Events
Art from the Inside + Just Education
Art from the Inside: pop-up exhibit and online panel conversation, in partnership with the Just Education Collaborative at the Weisman Art Museum
March 23, 2022
5-6:30 p.m. (online)
This event is free and open to the public, register on the Weisman Art Museum's website.
Tune in for a conversation with ART FROM THE INSIDE (AFTI) founder ANTONIO ESPINOSA about the transformational power of art, hosted by JUST EDUCATION and the WEISMAN ART MUSEUM. AFTI is a project that creates space for incarcerated artists to share their creative work and their voice. This event includes a screening of AFTI’s documentary, Transformation (2021), featuring works of incarcerated artists, followed by a roundtable conversation on Zoom, exploring where we can take action to promote the creative talents of these and other artists and how we can reverse the ripple effects of incarceration in Minnesota. This discussion will be facilitated by INGRID NUTTALL (Just Education co-founder), with participation of ANTONIO ESPINOSA (AFTI founder), ELAINE AUYOUNG (Donald V. Hawkins Professor and Associate Professor of English), and AFTI ARTISTS RICARDO DOMINGUEZ and JENNIFER MARX.
Research
The Just Education Collaborative sees the University's research mission as central to its work of reducing the ripple effect of incarceration in the state. Our research has included best practices for teaching incarcerated scholars; the history of prison labor; and supporting the group of undergraduate researchers in our Grand Challenges Course. If you have a research interest that could connect with our mission, please contact us to see if we can support your work.
Outreach
Our Outreach efforts have shown the impact of incarceration on individuals, their families, and communities. Just Education grew out of the Weisman Art Museum's Collaboration Incubator Program and artist and Just Education co-founder Daniel McCarthy Clifford's Section of Disapproved Books. We continue to partner with organizations to engage communities, including Art From the Inside.
Photo by Daniel McCarthy Clifford
Teaching and Learning
Grand Challenges Course - Just Education: The Role of Higher Education in Disrupting Mass Incarceration: This course explores the intersection of higher education and mass incarceration in the United States with a focus on the role of higher education in disrupting the collateral consequences of incarceration and justice involvement. In particular, this class examines the potential for the University of Minnesota to play a pivotal role in disrupting what the course calls the “ripple effect” of incarceration and justice involvement on individuals and communities in Minnesota.
As part of their final project for the course, University students Layne Bower, Alex Dimitrov, and Tess Grunklee produced the Just Education podcast where people, who were formerly incarcerated in Minnesota, discuss the role of education and community in their post-release opportunities and successes.
Just Education is also working in partnership with the Office of Undergraduate Education, University faculty, and the Minnesota Department of Corrections to offer University courses to incarcerated scholars in the Stillwater correctional facility.