More Than a Number: Art From Participants in Cal Poly Humboldt’s Prison Arts Collective Chapter at Pelican Bay State Prison

The Reese Bullen Gallery hosted an Artist Talk with the artists at Pelican Bay State Prison on Thursday February 23rd from 2:30-3:30pm. We will be sharing the talk recording by March 6th, with a link available here.

More Than A Number features more than a dozen artists from Pelican Bay State Prison located in Crescent City CA.  showcased at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Reese Bullen Gallery. The exhibit will run from February 16 to March 11, 2023. The public is invited to visit the gallery during open hours, or by appointment. The exhibition features paintings, papercraft, crochet, beadwork, drawings, and carvings. The gallery also hosts large prints of the murals inside the yard at Pelican Bay State Prison, a chance to see more artwork most will not get to see.

Since Spring of 2021, faculty and staff of the Art Department at Cal Poly Humboldt have worked to develop and maintain a chapter of the Prison Arts Collective (PAC) to offer arts instruction and material support for artmaking at Pelican Bay State Prison. The Prison Arts Collective, a statewide pairing of California State University Art Departments and state prisons, begun in 2013, operates through a belief in art as an inalienable human right. Our institutional partnerships are designed to foster creative self expression in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, such that people who are experiencing incarceration can have access to the transformative power of making and exhibiting art. Over the course of this show,  we have the shared opportunity to showcase the creative endeavors of (PAC) participants at Pelican Bay, bringing their creations outside of that space to a broader audience.

The Reese Bullen Gallery can be found on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus in the Art Building, near the corner of Laurel Drive and B St. in Arcata. The gallery is open Wed/Thurs 12pm-6pm, Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 11am-2pm. Closed Sun/Mon/Tues. Also open via appointment, please contact the Gallery Director at rbg@humboldt.edu, or call (707) 826-3629. Admission is free. Parking information is available at parking.humboldt.edu or (707) 826-3773

More information on Prison Arts Collective and how to support their efforts at www.prisonartscollective.com/