Supporting Incarcerated Youth

Part of the installation at George Mason University.

MARK STRANDQUIST lives in Richmond, VA, and combines within himself the roles of artist, educator, and organizer. His forte is creating interactive installations, utilizing social processes to create images, and serving as a catalyst for dialogue that leads to action.

So Mark chose to focus on incarcerated youth by posing questions to them that would focus on the issues which may have led to their adjudication. It started with prompts, such as "If you had a window in your cell, what place in your past would it look out to?" In response, high school students in the DC area would respond with their own photographs and interview members of the community. Then when the first Teen Congress On Ending Juvenile Incarceration was scheduled to meet, this dialogue would serve as a springboard to discussion and solution proposals.



Now, besides engaging in the actual artistic depictions of their experiences, all of the youths were taught photography skills and learned how photography could be used in the process of social engagement. The GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY STREET LAW CLINIC facilitated the workshops with the high school students.

The idea, from the point of view of the incarcerated youth, was to build a dialogue with youth in the community, to receive support from the dialogue, encourage friendship, and build trust. There would also be the increased self esteem and satisfaction that would come from seeing their work placed on public exhibition and being discussed in student newspapers. This is an ongoing project that has several phases, along with the support of several community groups.

Mark Strandquist with Courtney Bowles, his partner on other projects.

Thanks to information from this article from Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/mark-strandquist-windows-prison-youth-youth/, and this article from No Movement: http://www.nomovement.com/Windows-From-Prison-Youth-to-Youth.

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