Billboards by Incarcerated Artists
Artworks by Reuben Beltran, Blazej Kot, and Omar Shobey
Throughout Greene and Columbia counties, NY
December 5, 2025 through January 2, 2026
Find each new billboard with this map!
Shandaken Projects is pleased to announce the unveiling of three new artworks to be exhibited on billboards appearing throughout Greene and Columbia counties, NY as part of its ongoing 14x48 public art initiative. Each artwork was made by an incarcerated individual, and will be on view for four weeks.
Shandaken Projects has offered art education to incarcerated individuals in various facilities throughout New York State since 2022. The three artists selected for exhibition in this season of 14x48, Reuben Beltran, Omar Shobey, and Blazej Kot, all participated in Shandaken Projects’ Drawing and Art History course conducted in Sullivan County Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Fallsburg, NY, in 2024. This course was a part of NYSCA/Wave Farm: Arts in Corrections NYS, which facilitates and supports arts programming inside Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYS DOCCS) facilities across New York State.
The billboards are appearing during an ongoing staffing shortage at DOCCS which has impacted what programs and services are available to incarcerated individuals. Shandaken's current Arts in Corrections programming at Coxsackie Correctional Facility has been paused since February 2025.
Reuben Beltran's billboard can be seen in Catskill, NY, traveling west on West Bridge St/9W, between Hoebowl and Price Chopper. Omar Shobey's billboard can be seen in Catskill, NY, traveling north on Main Street, between Gallery 495 and JJ's Smokehouse. Blazej Kot's billboard can be seen traveling north on Route 9 in Stockport, NY between AJW Electric and the turnoff to Route 25B. A map of individual billboard locations can found here.
This presentation is made possible, in part, with public funds from the Greene County Legislature through the Greene County Cultural Fund, administered in Greene County by CREATE Council on the Arts
ABOUT SHANDAKEN’S DRAWING AND ART HISTORY COURSE
Inspired by Paolo Freire’s belief that teachers and students educate one another, and that education can be a tool for liberation, Shandaken Projects’ Drawing and Art History course prioritized peer-led conversation and skill sharing to cultivate participants’ critical thinking and artistic abilities. In weekly classes, up to 12 students per quarterly cycle acquired drawing skills that could be practiced in their cells, and participated in group discussions about canonical artworks in which those same skills were demonstrated. With the belief that every great artwork equips its audiences with all they need for a full experience of its greatness, discussions were guided by Shandaken staff but largely led by participants. This strategy encouraged students, many of whom were fresh to contemporary art discourse, to articulate a context for their own creative work while deepening their critical faculties and self-confidence.
ABOUT NYSCA/WAVE FARM: ARTS IN CORRECTIONS NYS
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.
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 a NYSCA regrant program administered by Wave Farm. It 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.
ABOUT THE 14x48 PUBLIC ART INITIATIVE
Shandaken Project’s 14x48 initiative has displaced commercial advertisements with artworks since 2021. This is the first time that incarcerated artists have been selected for the program. Shandaken has previously presented artworks on billboards by SHABOOM! (In collaboration with Art Omi) in Hudson and Ghent, Maggie Hazen in Hunter, and Bard students James Wise and Violet Tobacco (in collaboration with Bard College), in Hudson and Palenville. In New York City, Shandaken has presented artworks on billboards by such artists as Josh Kline and Jonathan Lyndon Chase. These presentations have been seen by an estimated 1.5 million viewers to date.
The program's title is derived from the standard size of commercial billboards, 14 by 48 feet.
Photographs by Adam T. Deen