Instagram: @prisonartscollective
Website: Prison Arts Collective
Facebook: Community Based Arts
Bio
Raymond Sharp and Stan Hunter. Their artist statements are as follows:
Wendy Staggs, in addition to being a formerly incarcerated person, has worked as a substance abuse counselor within the prison system. Having overcome her own trauma, Wendy has a passion to speak for those who have been silenced not only by their trauma, but by our failing judicial and prison system. Her journey of self-discovery was nurtured by way of participating in the Arts while incarcerated. She has become an outspoken driving force in conferences across the nation, and will not stop speaking out until there is some resolve for change. Wendy was an Inaugural 2017 UCLA Beyond the Bars Fellow, and a former Alumni teaching artist for The Actors Gang Prison/Reentry Project, as well as a member of The Anti-Recidivism Coalition and California Coalition for Women Prisoners. Wendy has also become the first alumni of the Community Based Art/Prison Arts Collective program to become an Advisory Board Member. Wendy also inaugurated Project Alice in the community. This is a visual arts group, and an open studio, for formerly incarcerated individuals, foster children, or anyone who is system impacted/affected.
My name is Raymond Sharp, and I am formerly incarcerated. I went to prison in 1988, at 17 years old; I served 31 years 7 months, and have been out for 1 year. Art allowed me to retain my sanity and eventually to begin the healing process, which is thankfully continuing.
While Hunter was experiencing incarceration, his pivotal point of rehabilitation was finding a paint brush and set of pencils. Instead of feeling the need to escape through drugs, art became the vehicle that drove him to transform his life. While serving time, he was confined to an 8’ x 10’ concrete cell, but when he painted he felt like a free man. In 2013, while still incarcerated at the California Institution for Men, Hunter met Professor Annie Buckley, now Director of SDSU School of Art + Design. Together they began a program that has since evolved into a statewide program, The Prison Arts Collective, supported by Arts in Corrections.
On January 8th, 2019, Stan Hunter was released from a California state prison after serving 30 years of a life sentence. Today, he is a Lead Teaching Artist with PAC and educates incarcerated individuals, encouraging them to make a positive impact on society.
