Teaching Art to Inmates: A Liberating Experience : FACES

Rather than concentrating solely on her own art, Carol Newborg puts a lot of energy into the art of others. But she says that time away from her work actually improves it.

“There are thousands of artists out there, but the broader your view of the world, the broader your experiences, the better your art is,” said the sculptor, whose mixed-media installation, “Gateway,” opens Sept. 5 as part of the Los Angeles Festival’s “Forbidden Entry” exhibition at USC Fisher Gallery.

Newborg, 35, said her work has been “opened up” by her experiences as community outreach consultant for the statewide Arts-in-Corrections program. The program places about 300 artists each year in nine different institutions where they teach art courses to about 8,000 inmates per year.

“I’ve learned that people really want art to be meaningful in their lives,” said Newborg, who has shown previously in several university and community galleries, including Hebrew Union College’s Skirball Museum. “And working with these people, you do see some where the art is helping them. It builds self-esteem. It’s healing. There’s value just in expressing yourself.”

But rather than letting the inmates’ artistic efforts end there, Newborg’s main job is to organize exhibitions of works from the prison program. Pieces by 16 of the most promising inmate-artists go on view Thursday at City Hall’s Bridge Gallery in “Images From the Inside II,” a follow-up to the first “Images” show, which was held in the Bridge Gallery two years ago. The current exhibition is included in the L.A. Festival’s Open Festival.

“There’s a lot of talent out there,” said Newborg, who spent three years in the prisons teaching drawing, ceramics and collage classes before taking her current position. “The work is good . That’s what people are surprised by. Of course some of it’s really schlocky, but some of it’s very strong.”

Other upcoming inmate exhibitions include “Perimeters,” a print show opening in December at Cal State Northridge; “Altars/Icons/Altered Images” opening at Cal Poly Pomona next March; and a show of self-portraits, also scheduled for next March, at Whittier College.

“It’s important to get this work out there,” said Newborg. “It breaks down the stereotypes and shows those who see the works that inmates are people too.”

Operating on a $2.1 million annual budget from the Department of Corrections, California Arts Council, UCLA Extension’s Artsreach, and the Santa Cruz-based William James Foundation, the AIC program includes courses and performances in theater, dance and poetry. But organizers say about two-thirds of the program centers on the visual arts, including drawing, painting and ceramics.

Artists who have taught in the program include John Valadez, John Otterbridge, Margaret Garcia and Keiko Fukazawa.

CURRENTS

Artist Karen Atkinson, whose recent exhibition at the L.A. Center for Photographic Studies, “Art Protection Services, ARTtorneys for Art,” resulted in more than 20,000 postcards being mailed in support of unrestricted National Endowment for the Arts funding, is continuing her anti-censorship efforts.

Atkinson is plastering her new poster, “Visionaries of Their Time,” at about 250 Los Angeles locations and another 250 San Diego spots. The black-and-white poster, which is going up in windows of local businesses and stores, depicts three “visionaries”: Adolf Hitler, Joseph McCarthy and Sen. Jesse Helms.

“A few months ago, when President Bush had gone to visit Helms, I heard that he had called him, ‘a visionary of his time,’ and I just freaked,” Atkinson said. “So this is my response to that.”

In addition to the posters, Atkinson, with the help of other local artists through “ARTtorneys at Work,” is distributing about 60 brightly colored stickers with such slogans as “Serve Your Country, Support the Arts,” “Art Is Not a Crime,” “Artists Against Helms” and “If You Believe That One, I’ll Sell You a New Version of the First Amendment.” Sets of the stickers are available for $6 at Venice’s Beyond Baroque Arts Center.

“I’m still trying to figure out how to make people respond to this stuff,” Atkinson said. “We thought the posters and stick-its were a good way to keep the issue flowing in a kind of funny way. I know this (NEA controversy) is kind of dragging on, but we’ve got to keep the discussion going.”

Also trying to keep the discussion going is the California Confederation of the Arts, which brought together speakers including State Assemblyman Mike Roos, City Councilman Robert Farrell, arts activist Joy Silverman, performance artist Rachel Rosenthal and representatives from the Pete Wilson and Dianne Feinstein gubernatorial campaigns, for an arts advocacy workshop held last weekend at Barnsdall Arts Park.

But the poorly attended event only underscored the point the speakers tried to drive home to the sparse 30-person crowd: Artists must unite to protect their own interests because no one else can be counted on to do it for them.

“We as a group have never united, demonstrated, assembled or done anything to protect ourselves in a country that hates, fears and tries to put down its artists. It’s time that we did,” said Rosenthal, who recently turned down an NEA grant in protest of the endowment’s anti-obscenity guidelines.

Said Roos, who advised schmoozing with politicians at cocktail parties and giving them free tickets to arts events: “It’s in your hands, and that’s the only message I can give you. Pull people in, make them see what you’re seeing and show them firsthand the excitement and the exultation that your work is bringing. “

THE SCENE

Noted artist Robert Indiana has produced his first new prints in 10 years through the Tarzana-based Park Granada Editions.

The suite of five silk screens, released in an edition of 50, are an homage to American abstractionist painter Marsdan Hartley and are derived from his German Officer paintings produced in the early 1900s.

“ArtGolf,” an artist-designed miniature golf course sponsored by the Arroyo Arts Collective, is open at Casa de Rosas, 1600 S. Hoover, through Sept. 16.

Artists exhibiting in the nine holes of functional miniature golf include Philo Northrup, Jack DeVore, Terry Dearing and Laura Howe.

The course is open Thursdays and Fridays from noon-8 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from noon-6 p.m. Information: (213) 743-7624.

Melrose Avenue’s Zero One Gallery is hosting a “gala cancellation party” on Saturday for the “1990 World’s Fair of Nihilism” which was to have been held in September as part of the L.A. Festival’s Open Festival.

Organizers said they couldn’t find a venue for the event, so decided to hold a party instead, which will feature artworks, a “nihilist” video program and other events.

The party begins at 8:30 p.m. Artists involved in the effort include Michael McMillan, Jeffrey Vallance, Linda Albertano and Elisha Shapiro. Information: (213) 935-2425.

OVERHEARD

“Can you imagine that this is his collection? “ said a short-haired woman to two companions while discussing Walter Annenberg’s fortunes during the black-tie preview of L.A. County Museum of Art’s “Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection.” “I mean, he just walks around his living room, picks up a TV guide, and looks at a Monet .”

HAPPENING

Several emerging-artist residents of downtown’s Santa Fe Art Colony are holding Open Studios Saturday and next Sunday and Sept. 15-16 as part of the L.A. Festival’s Open Festival. A map in the courtyard will indicate which studios, in addition to the complex’s new Millenium Gallery, will be open each day. The program will vary each weekend, and the hours are noon-6 p.m. Information: (213) 583-8761.

Otis/Parsons Art Institute is holding its Continuing Education Open House today from 1-3 p.m. The event will preview new courses and include a demonstration of the monoprint process. Information: (213) 251-0501.

ELSEWHERE

UC Santa Barbara’s University Art Museum is conducting weekly tours of Santa Barbara’s large, multilocation exhibition, “Pulse 2: People Using Light, Sound and Energy.” The tours will be conducted at 2 p.m. every Saturday through Oct. 27. Information: (805) 893-2951.

ETC.

Sept. 5 is the registration deadline for the L.A. County Museum of Art’s course, “Masterpieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection.” The class will be taught from 1-3 p.m. on Saturdays from Sept. 8-Oct. 13. Tuition is $55 and enrollment is limited. Information: (213) 857-6139.