Art historian and 2021 MacArthur Fellow Dr. Nicole Fleetwood discusses the profound significance of the art created by incarcerated people.

Professor, art historian, and curator Dr. Nicole Fleetwood has spent years exploring the art of incarcerated people and how it is essential to our understanding of mass incarceration and the people it affects. A 2021 MacArthur Fellow, Fleetwood began this work as she reflected on her family’s and community’s history of imprisonment. The project grew into an award-winning book Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration and a traveling museum exhibition also titled “Marking Time.” Both the book and the exhibit look at the work of some 35 artists who are currently incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, or who’ve been affected by the prison system. In this podcast, Fleetwood discusses the ingenuity involved in creating art within the constraints of the prison system, the bonds that can be forged among prisoners who are artists, the sheer talent and dedication these artists bring to their work, and the insights about imprisonment that the artwork frequently displays. Dr. Fleetwood is passionate, knowledgeable, and deeply appreciative of the spark of creativity that won’t be extinguished even under soul-crushing circumstances. Josephine Reed