In the Gallery this month…
During the month of September, come by the Gallery and see work featured by the Prison Book Program.
Prison Book Program has been sending packages of free, hand-selected books to people in
prisons and jails across the country since 1972. In 2024, they sent 19,875 packages
containing nearly 70,000 books to incarcerated readers housed in more than 1,000 facilities
in all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico.
Art from Inside is a curated selection of works that PBP’s readers and book requestors
have sent to us over the course of many decades, often as a token of gratitude for a
shipment of books. Many pieces are explicitly book-themed, depicting reading as a
temporary escape from the confines of prison or as a vehicle for growth, learning and
rehabilitation. Books are liberating for readers in both senses. Without access to the
Internet, books often take on a significance to incarcerated people that folks on the outside
struggle to understand. The pieces in this exhibit also showcase the detailed techniques that
can be achieved with the simplest tools, most commonly ball point pen and pencil. Art from
Inside shows how much talent, creativity and human potential resides behind bars.
The work will be displayed in the Gallery of the library from September 2 - September 29.