"Art on the Inside" Opens at the Birmingham Public Library

The Birmingham Public Library is excited to partner with the Alabama Prison Arts +Education Project to present Art on the Inside, a collection of new works by artists who participated in APAEP classes. The exhibition will be on view in the First Floor Gallery at the Central Library through April 25.

Art on the Inside features works in an array of media, including watercolor, pencil, pastel, mixed-media collage, and handmade paper. The largest work in the show is an eye-catching collaboration among APAEP artists, nationally renowned artist Tameca Cole, and New Orleans-based Brendon Palmer-Angell. The present exhibition marks the unveiling of the mural, which is titled Can You See You?.

Based at Auburn University, the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project works to create spaces where currently and formerly incarcerated individuals can practice meaningful engagement with the arts and develop their own artistic voices. Founded with the knowledge that creativity is an essential trait of humanity, the program has grown from one poet teaching one class in one facility to hundreds of classes that have reached thousands of students at over 12 facilities. The APAEP community cultivates inclusive, student-centered spaces for creativity, exploration, and lifelong relationships with learning.    

In years past, APAEP has exhibited artworks at the Jule Collins SmithMuseum of Fine Art in Auburn; the Alabama State Council on the Arts in Montgomery; the Gulf ArtSpace Gallery in Fairhope; Salt Space NYC and New York State University; St. Louis University in Missouri; and the Making and Unmaking of Mass Incarceration Conference at the University of Mississippi. For more information about the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project, please visit apaep.auburn.edu.

BPL would like to thank the featured artists; Robert Hitt of APAEP, who curated Art on the Inside for BPL; and Terry Beckham who, with his long-standing professional experience in designing art shows, installed this special exhibition. Art on the Inside is part of BPL’s Art for Everyone series, made possible by a grant awarded to the Friends Foundation of BPL by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.

By Margaret Splane, Library Assistant III