Behind bars, self-expression becomes a luxury. While making art can serve as a means of rehabilitation, allow for emotional release, and act as an empowering force for incarcerated individuals, the prison system all too often denies inmates the right to create. “Beyond Bars: Art from Inside”—an art show on the 10th floor of the Smith Center on March 1 featuring the work of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists—was one of many efforts working to change this and give these people the voice they deserve.
Stepping foot into the gallery, you are immediately inundated with a wide variety of colors, mediums, and, at the heart, stories. From taking the shape of butterflies to birds to bicycles, each piece reflects the proud identities and histories of the artists who created them.
Direction by “A.A.” depicts a woman pointing to the distant light at the end of a tunnel. The earthy blues, browns, and greens of the rest of the painting starkly contrast the woman, who is the only colorless thing on the canvas. The bright end of the tunnel is lit by the blue sky painted above it. Though the body of the woman is painted with cracks, the card beneath the painting clarifies that she does not represent weakness but instead perseverance in the face of hardship. It reads, “‘Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.’ –Marcus Aurelius”
Counterbalance with Vagary Rhythm by “J.W.” takes the form of a butterfly, split by four different scenes painted onto its wings. “The butterfly is a smile of fluttering hope,” the artist writes in a poem below the painting. On the upper half of the left wing is a large, yellow moon that shines against the dark blue night sky behind it. “As the moon reflects the sun’s innermost light/It also reflects my individuality,” the artist continues in their poem. The scene right below features a row of trees, painted so that you feel as if you are looking up at them as they stretch toward the sky. “Trees and flowers are my growth upwards,” the artist adds. The third scene shows three black birds in flight, painted against a bright pink background, and the final scene shows a flower, adorned with an array of colors, against a green background. “Birds are the flight of my spirit/unwavering and free,” the artist writes in conclusion. “What is real is truly valuable.”
The View Outside by “K.B.” depicts the view from a ship’s porthole. The world outside the window is almost heavenly, with a deep blue lake that runs towards mountains and lush trees, set in front of a bright blue sky. “A port hole in the side of the ship allows a person to have a limited view of the outside world, that’s very much like the view you will have from a prison cell,” the artist writes below. This piece allows its viewers to gain insight into the pain and aggravation of being behind bars. “I’m on the inside looking out at a bright and beautiful world I can’t touch,” the artist continues. “[This piece] tells the frustration I feel every time I look out of that port hole because there’s so much more I want to see and experience.”
Four artists committed to restorative justice came together to help make this gallery happen, according to the pamphlet the Harvard Defenders handed out at the gallery. First is Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist. Inspired to make a change by what she experienced while in prison, Baxter focuses her work on the challenges women of color face when they enter the criminal justice system.
After spending a significant portion of his youth in Massachusetts Correctional Systems, the second artist, Eric Anderson, was inspired to join the movement as well. Though never incarcerated, the third, Mollie Hosmer-Dillard, is another artist equally as committed to restorative justice in the prison system. She is an arts educator and painter who holds painting and drawing classes for incarcerated youth and adults. Dillard additionally organizes exhibitions of her students’ work, even bringing some of their work to display at the Behind Bars gallery. Last but certainly not least, Eric Loughney is a formerly incarcerated painter whose efforts have been key to the movement for restorative justice in the prison system. As the creator of the Pyrrhic Defeat portrait project, his art “acts as a courier” for criminal justice reform efforts nationwide. He was a recipient of the 2023 Art For Justice Fellowship, one of many other recognitions.
These pieces were only a few of many featured in “Beyond Bars: Art from Inside,” yet each provides insight into the emotions, hardships, and identities of the artists. The opportunity for people to see the work and subsequently understand the stories of incarcerated individuals is a step forward in undercutting the legal and social stigmas placed on inmates. It gives voice to the identities lost in the process of mass incarceration and begins to restore the independence and agency denied to individuals by the criminal justice system.
Sophia Ghafouri ’27 (sghafouri@college.harvard.edu) can barely draw a stick figure.