Wednesday 16 March 2016 - The role of the arts in the cycle of crime, prison and reoffending - Angela Findlay
At the age of 21 Angela walked into Long Bay Gaol in Sydney with a portfolio of her murals.
Two weeks later she was locked in a huge walled yard with two Brazilian coke smugglers, a bank robber, a murderer and a motley selection of paints and brushes.
‘I had this overwhelming sense of “This is it!”’ she recalls.
Angela worked for the next 20 years with and within prisons and Young Offender Institutions in both England and Germany.
In this fascinating talk she offers insights into the minds and lives of offenders and explores the reasons why our prison system is failing.
Her art projects demonstrate not only novel approaches to tackling re-offending but also dispel the idea that the arts are a soft option.
about our lecturer:
Angela Findlay is a multi-faceted artist who alternates between painting canvases and working on mixed-media projects. Working with unusual materials from mud to cake, her artworks and paintings reflect the idea that places, buildings and objects bear witness to, reveal and hold the memory of human stories omitted by history’s grander narrative yet crucial to our understanding of the human experience.
Read article about Angela's work in The Artist Magazine here
Angela is also a Specialist Speaker and visiting Lecturer. Her talks look at the role the arts can play in the cycle of crime, prisons and offenders and World War 2 from a German point of view. The latest talk is about Germany’s little known post-war process and culture of memorials and counter memorials.
To learn more about Angela’s talks please go to her website