Access
Publication Rights
Source of Acquisition
Preferred Citation
Historical note
Scope and Content
Organization and Arrangement
Items Removed from the Collection
Related Material
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Title: California. Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Arts-in-Corrections Records.
Identifier/Call Number: University Archives Record Series 721
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
69.2 linear ft.
(160 document boxes, 4 half document boxes, 4 oversize boxes)
Date: 1977-2010
Creator:
Arts-in-Corrections
Creator:
Artsreach
Creator:
Bowers, Jack
Creator:
Carlson, James R.
Creator:
Hesemeyer, Jeffery J.
Creator:
Newborg, Carol
Creator:
Petersen, William
Creator:
William James Association
Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special
Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
EXCEPTION: Box 73 containing personnel files and identifying information of volunteers, mentors, and artist facilitator has
been restricted.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the UCLA University Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from the
records must be submitted in writing to the University Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the UCLA
University Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright
holder, which must also be obtained.
Source of Acquisition
Gift of
- Susan Hill, Artsreach, 2006, 2010
- William James Association, 2009
- Jack Bowers, 2009
- James R. Carlson, 2009
- William Cleveland, 2009
- William Petersen, 2009
- Carol Newborg, 2010
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], California. Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Arts-in-Corrections Records (University Archives
Record Series 721). UCLA Library Special Collections, University Archives.
Historical note
Arts-in-Corrections was a unit within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that contracted with independent
community service organizations and professional artists to provide arts programs within correctional institutions. The program
began as the pilot Prison Arts Project at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, CA in 1977 with funding provided by
the California Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the San Francisco Foundation, and the Law Enforcement Assistance
Administration. The success of this initial program led to the Legislature appropriating $400,000 to augment the 1981 Department
of Corrections budget, establishing the Arts in Corrections unit within the department's Office of Community Resources Development.
The Arts in Corrections budget initially funded a program manager, six full-time civil service artist facilitators, and contracts
with professional artists as well as community arts organizations, and monies for supplies, equipment, and facilities. Over
the next three decades following the program inception, the William James Association and Artsreach (UCLA Extension) partnered
with Arts in Corrections to manage the hiring, artist residency design and training, as well as the implementation and evaluation
of the arts programs. Professional artists provided instruction in painting, drawing, sculpture, murals, photography, poetry,
creative writing, theater, and music. The William James Association and Artsreach also sponsored state-wide competitions and
exhibitions outside of the walls of the institutions.
By the 1990s, Arts in Corrections had fully operational studios and placed on-site arts professionals as staff in every state
correctional and rehabilitation institution in California, becoming the largest institutionally-based arts program in the
United States. Due to the state's budget crisis, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation terminated artist facilitator
positions at each of the institutions, concurrently eliminating the Arts in Corrections program in January 2010.
Scope and Content
The Arts in Corrections Records consists of administrative, financial, and instructional records; documentation of works of
art; publications; news clippings; research materials; and institutional arts-related resources collected by Arts in Corrections,
its contractual partners, Artsreach and the William James Association, and individual artist facilitators. The collection
also contains the general administrative records of Artsreach and records of its collaborations with other constituents such
as the California Youth Authority, the Exceptional Children's Foundation, and 4-H Youth Development Organization, among others.
Files have been divided into series according to the originating entity and into subseries according to primary genres as
interpreted by the collection processor. Folder titles have been maintained from their original titles if provided by the
originating entity and noted as such in the corresponding descriptions. Titles on audiovisual materials such as videocassettes
and cassette tapes were transferred from the original labels, but contents have not been verified.
The following acronyms and initialisms are frequently used in this collection:
Organization and Arrangement
Arranged in the following series:
- William James Association
- Administrative records
- Works of art and creative writing
- Competitions and exhibitions
- Newsletters, clippings, ephemera
- William James Association Library
- Administration of program
- Administrative records
- Financial records
- Works of art, publications, exhibitions
- Newsletters, clippings, research
- William Cleveland records
- Artsreach
- Administrative records
- Arts in Corrections
- Programs for youth
- Research and resources
- Artist Facilitators
- Jack Bowers
- James R. Carlson
- Jeffrey J. Hesemeyer
- Carol Newborg
- William Petersen
Items Removed from the Collection
Confidential records from inmates' California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Central File were removed from
this collection. Identifying information such as Social Security numbers were redacted or removed, and duplicate materials
were weeded out of the collection.
Related Material
California. Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Arts-in-Corrections. [California Arts-In-Corrections Program, 1983-2009]
UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, Record ID 13178. Audiovisual and sound recordings of music created by inmates at Folsom Prison,
Soledad Correctional Training Facility, California Institution for Men in Chino, and the William James Association Prison
Arts Project. For access, contact
UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive .
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Arts-in-Corrections records
California. Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Arts-in-Corrections --Archives.
Prison Arts Project (William James Association)
University of California, Los Angeles. Artsreach Program.
Prisoners as artists --California --Archival resources.