project with 31 people in 25 UK & US prisons
exhibited at HERBERT ART GALLERY (UK) & ANN ARBOR ART FAIR (USA)
IN Partnership with NOVUS and the PRISON CREATIVE ARTS PROJECT (pcap)
funded by Coventry Biennial & Arts Council England
During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, enforced in-cell 23-hour lockdown was the strategic daily regime in many prisons globally. During this period of extreme inactivity and isolation, I devised We Bear; an international collaborative project to support and publicly exhibit artworks made in that incarceration experience.
I was commissioned by Coventry Biennial to create an artwork for exhibition and negotiated to use the opportunity to invite 30 men and women incarcerated in 25 prisons in the UK and US to respond to a creative brief focussed on two paintings as starting-point inspiration. The offer was that all responses would be exhibited internationally and showcased in an exhibition publication. It was a deceptively simple idea that relied on a phenomenal amount of goodwilled partnership-work, as well as self-motivation from participants.
Despite being staged in the anxiety-fuelled months of emergence from global pandemic lockdowns, the We Bear exhibition achieved an audience of more than 52,000 people in Coventry’s Herbert Art Gallery (UK) and by more than 300,000 at Michigan’s Ann Arbor Art Fair (US). Its trailblazing success owes much to partnerships with Novus and the Prison Creative Arts Project and support from Coventry Biennial and Arts Council England.
WE BEAR
“A really exceptional, deeply moving and humane exhibition and project.”
We Bear visitor.
To see the artworks, poems and statements offline, you can download the We Bear publication (pdf).
gallery of exhibits & artist statements
A note on language & content: The artworks here are all authentic creative responses and some may have potential to cause offense or upset. The contents and importance of freedom of expression have been carefully considered and aren’t censored. You’ll also find a mixture of US and UK spellings throughout, appropriate to each creator’s location.
bonus material gallery
Acknowledgements
Huge thanks to all the participants and supporting staff. We Bear would not be exist without great partners; Novus, the Prison Creative Arts Project, Coventry Biennial, the Ann Arbor Art Fair. The project's tour to the US was funded by Arts Council England with additional in-kind support from Novus, PCAP, the University of Michigan, the Guild of Artists & Artisans and the University of Warwick. Thanks also to Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park and the American Folk Art Museum for permission to use collection paintings as starting-point inspiration.
