Restorative Arts Summit: Pathways to Healing, Re-Entry and Community

With the support of the Minnesota Humanities Center, local nonprofit Art from the Inside recently hosted the inaugural Restorative Arts Summit: Pathways to Healing, Re-Entry, and Community on Saturday, November 15. The day-long gathering was for individuals and organizations that are invested in the arts as a healing response to incarceration; the goal was to build and strengthen relationships across modalities and contexts.

As an artist who has been transformed by the opportunity to be in community with incarcerated folx through my work at Shakopee prison and Stillwater prison, I was excited to be involved in the crafting of this innovative gathering as the event coordinator. I had first worked with Art from the Inside (AFTI) as a wellness facilitator for two of their visual art prison programs this past spring and summer and have been inspired by their commitment to the arts as a form of healing, and to the individuals they serve. Antonio and Jessica Espinosa, the founders of Art from the Inside, are dedicated, big-hearted humans committed to the transformation of society, and they wanted this summit to be a space that centered relationality, coalition-building, and the creative practice of artmaking itself.

True to its intention, the development of this day was itself a practice of collaboration. A planning committee met bi-weekly starting in July, sharing their time and their wisdom as we architected a day that promised to be interactive, creative, and relational. This group was made up of a mix of representatives of arts and advocacy organizations like Ten Thousand Things Theater, MN Prison Writing Workshop, and Re-Entry Lab, as well as a number of AFTI’s Creative Pathways Fellows. Creative Pathways Fellows are all individuals and artists directly impacted by incarceration, who have participated in a months-long cohort engaging in creative practice and community building, whose participation in the Summit planning committee marked the culmination of their fellowship. Through the committee’s generous collaboration, we constructed a highly interactive program that included opportunities for artistic practice, networking, and support, while our chosen venue of the Playwrights’ Center provided a venue that was warm, welcoming, and palpably creative.

On the day itself, about 60 individuals gathered for a day of conversation, connection, and collaboration. Workshops on creative writing, beadwork, singing, portraiture, and visual poetry were offered, as well as opportunities for attendees to gather around shared interests or desired resources. From story circles to group singing to a remarkable panel discussion, the day felt like a fitting homage to the healing power of the arts, and our shared commitment to using the deeply human practice of creativity as an antidote for the dehumanizing impacts of our carceral system.

In reflecting on the day, I am most struck by the sense of warmth in the room – how quickly people were willing to share their stories, hopes, and resources with others towards the shared goal of using the arts as a healing practice. As participants trickled out of the Playwrights’ Center at the end of the day, it was clear that connections had been forged, and that the conversation was just beginning. I look forward to seeing how these new relationships may continue to deepen and grow… and to the possibilities that may emerge as a result of the Summit, carrying us all towards a more just and humane world.