Windows from Prison

 

When a DC citizen enters the federal penitentiary system they may find themselves thousands of miles from family and friends. Windows from Prison seeks to bridge this distance by asking prisoners:

“If you could have a window in your cell, what place from your past would it look out to?”

Based on hundreds of responses, photography students at George Mason University and Duke Ellington High School collaborated to create the requested images, which were then printed and sent to the incarcerated participants.

These photographs will also be displayed publically and online in order to open dialogues around the sources, impacts, and alternatives to mass incarceration. The project is students, teachers, NGO’s, family members of incarcerated individuals, former prisoners, and policy makers.

From April 7 – 21, large-scale photographs will be installed in front of George Mason University’s Fenwick Library along with an interactive information and performance space. Each day will feature film screenings, information sessions, lectures, poetry readings and related activities.

Complete information: www.windowsfromprison.com

Directed by Mark Strandquist this project was awarded a 2013 Photowings/Ashoka Foundation Insight project grant and a Pollination Project Grant. Project collaborators include Provisions Library, Free Minds DC,  Washington Project for the Arts, and Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and a multi-discipinary array of departments at George Mason University.



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