Initiated in 2023, Arts in Corrections NYS facilitates and supports arts programming inside Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYS DOCCS) facilities across New York State. A regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Arts in Corrections NYS is facilitated by Wave Farm, a nonprofit New York State arts organization, in collaboration with NYS DOCCS.
In 2023 and 2024, Arts in Corrections NYS supported arts programming inside approximately 10 New York State facilities. In 2025, Arts in Corrections expanded to 15 facilities across New York State, supporting in-person workshops that provide system-impacted individuals with once-a-week programming led by teaching artists in a variety of disciplines including the visual arts, electronic media/film, music, movement, and literature.
Shandaken Projects offered Arts in Corrections workshops at Sullivan County Correctional Facility from April 2023 through October 2024, when the program was transferred to Coxsackie Correctional Facility where it remains. Inspired by Paolo Freire’s belief that teachers and students educate one another, and that education can be a tool for liberation, the workshop prioritizes peer-led conversation and skill sharing to cultivate participants’ critical thinking, drawing, and printmaking abilities. Complementing the skills-based instruction, participants also discuss visual culture and art history—learning about, observing, and critiquing one to two significant artworks each week.
More information about this State-wide program, examples or participants' artwork, and details about the other workshops throughout New York are available at artsincorrectionsnys.org.
Arts in Corrections NYS is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
Background image: Drawing (detail) by Blazej Kot, Sullivan C.F., 2024