Art as Connector

Authors

  • Annie Buckley San Diego State University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33009/fsop_ijci140437

Keywords:

arts in corrections, community, Prison Arts Collective

Abstract

The author discusses finding community in art, drawing on 30 years experience teaching in prisons and other settings.

Author Biography

Annie Buckley, San Diego State University

Annie Buckley, MFA, is the founding director of Prison Arts Collective and author, most recently, of Changemakers’ Guide to Prison Arts Programming. She is a professor and director at San Diego State University.

References

Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. https:// www.ways-of-seeing .com/

Buckley, A. & Prison Arts Collective. (2017). Collaborative workshops: Process. Prison Arts Collective. https://www.prisonartscollective.com/collaborative-workshops

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media: The extensions of man. MIT Press.

Sawyer, W. & Wagner, P. (2025). Mass incarceration: The whole pie. Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2025.html

Sorensen, B. E. (2013). Beyond tradition: Culture, symbolism, and practicality in American Indian art. Tribal College, Journal of American Indian Higher Education. https://tribalcollegejournal.org/beyond-tradition-culture-symbolism-and-practicality-in-american-indian-art/

West, S. (2019). Philosophize this: Episode 054: Hume-­art. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6oIp-r71VU

Cover image is a painting with the viewer’s perspective from inside a jail cell. Its concrete walls are broken, showing the world outside those walls with barb wire fences and a guard tower. But through the bars of the closed door one can see green grass, a leafy tree, and blue sky.

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Published

2026-05-20

How to Cite

Buckley, A. (2026). Art as Connector. International Journal for Creativity Inside, 1(1), 7–12. https://doi.org/10.33009/fsop_ijci140437

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Essays

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Annie Buckley

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.