Press release

PRESS RELEASE

Announcing the International Journal for Creativity Inside

Chicago, 1 August 2025. The Florida State University Institute for Arts & Art Therapy with the Imprisoned (AATI) and Creative Prisons Project in Chicago today introduced a new, free, open source, nonprofit International Journal for Creativity Inside (IJCI). The mission of the journal is to highlight, support, and expand the value of creativity within carceral systems to people in prison and to society worldwide.

“We are excited to embark on this new, global forum to bring together voices from the arts, art therapy, research scholarship, law, librarianship, criminology, corrections, and other fields,” said David Gussak, Professor and Director of the FSU Institute for Arts and Art Therapy with the Imprisoned and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the new journal.

Co-Editor-in-Chief John R. Whitman, Principal of Creative Prisons Project, adds, “A number of leading journals address the criminal justice community, but the importance of a new journal focusing on arts-in-corrections represents a major, new step in the development of carceral creativity as a relatively new but growing professional field. The great appeal of the arts inside is that there are no barriers or prerequisites for an incarcerated person to learn the skills of creative expression, and doing so has been shown to be a gateway to further education, strengthening life skills, and leading to a new form of self-identification with renewed agency.” The journal will publish new research and perspectives that aim to strengthen the relationship between creativity in prisons and the well-being of people during and following incarceration as they return to the community.

The target audience for IJCI is primarily educators, practitioners, librarians, clinicians, evaluators, students, and administrators (including corrections professionals) delivering or supporting arts-in-corrections programs worldwide. Additional audiences include policymakers, judges, probation officers, community members, others affected by the judicial system and its outcomes, and the general public. Submissions by collaborations between people on the outside and inside are encouraged.

The first call for papers as well as the current international editorial board may be found at the journal website, https://journals.flvc.org/IJCInside. Visitors to the journal site are encouraged to register at no cost to receive further announcements. Information on the FSU AATI may be found at the institutes website, https://cfa.fsu.edu/aati/.

-30-