The Prison Creative Arts Project

Since 1996, Janie Paul has been working as a curator and teacher with the Prison Creative Arts Project. PCAP is an organization based at the University of Michigan whose mission is to collaborate with incarcerated adults and youth, urban youth and the formally incarcerated to strengthen the community through creative expression. Paul has facilitated several art workshops in prisons and teaches a class at the University of Michigan in which her undergraduate students facilitate art workshops in men’s, women’s, and juvenile facilities.

She co-founded and has co-curated 26 Annual Exhibitions of Art by Michigan Prisoners, traveling each year to prisons around the state to collect about 300 works of art each year by over 200 artists. The exhibition is held at the University of Michigan and each year, is viewed by approximately 3,000 people. The work is intense and varied.