ART 5890 Professors Dani ReStack and Carmen Winant posed with students for a class photo taken during the group's final meeting at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in December 2022.
"ART 5890: Drawing as Feminist Art,” one of two classes offered at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Autumn 2022, was the very first OPEEP course of its kind. OSU Art Professors Dani ReStack and Carmen Winant collaborated as joint instructors of the course. The unique class generated excitement amongst incarcerated and campus-based students alike, ultimately enrolling a total of 15 students for the semester. To ensure each student would have the necessary tools to engage in hands-on learning and complete course assignments, Professors ReStack and Winant brought various art supplies into the prison facility with them each week for class. Equipped with tools like pencils, charcoal, watercolor paints, and oil paints, ART 5890 students were able to create artwork across a variety of mediums (some students' artwork can be seen in the photos below).
Reflecting on the semester, Professors ReStack and Winant described the experience of teaching in a prison setting as “entirely new,” and “really (totally) unlike teaching on campus.” For Restack and Winant, several key factors led to the uniqueness of the experience: “first, the students brought a level of energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to the class unlike [anything else] we have ever seen. Second, we learned very quickly that we had to be adaptive to, and nimble within, this environment. If we couldn't deliver a slide lecture of artists, then what could we do instead? If we couldn't bring in oil pastels, what could we use in their place, and so on. And finally, the focus on building relationships between students, and centering one another's lived experiences, felt unique to us. And quite powerful.” Centering lived experience in teaching and learning is a core tenet of OPEEP's pedagogical philosophy, and seeing this manifest across different classes and spaces never ceases to amaze!
To those instructors and students considering teaching or enrolling in an OPEEP course, Professors Restack and Winant would like to say the following:
“Our involvement with OPEEP has shifted our relationship to teaching, both inside and outside of prisons. We have always believed that education is a human right, and that artmaking has a particular power to channel our deepest emotions and experiences, and act as a point of connection between. In teaching this class we have been able to put those beliefs in[to] practice. But more than that: we have gotten the privilege of bearing witness. To bridge building, to relationship building, to a shared humanity through art and close conversation.”
Creating opportunities for people to bear witness to the profound, positive impacts of increased access to education in prison facilities, like those mentioned by Restack and Winant, is at the very heart of OPEEP's work. As a collective, we couldn't be more grateful or proud to facilitate these kinds of life-changing experiences.
The OPEEP team congratulates you on a successful semester, Professors Restack and Winant!
Student artwork from the course can be viewed in the photos below or by visiting the class display in the undergraduate open studio space on OSU's main campus.
Artist (top): Julia
Artist (middle): Tink
Artist (bottom): Destiny
Artists: Gabriella, Sara, Gray, Anya, and Brandi
(Composite portraits include artwork created by multiple students)
(Artist unnamed)
Artists: Crystal, Kelsey, Tosha, Jessica
(Composite portraits include artwork created by multiple students)
Artists: Destiny, Julia, Kristalyn, Olivia
(Composite portraits include artwork created by multiple students)
(Artist unnamed)
(Artist unnamed)
