Colouring In
What’s the highlight of your week? Is it that coffee in your hand? Is it sitting in front of the TV watching your football team play at their best? Or is it picking your grandchildren up from child care and having them give you a cuddle that will stay with you for the next week? Maybe it’s as simple as enjoying the sunshine on your face.
Unfortunately for many of the men and women in Australian prisons they have little to look forward to. Prison may mean spending most of their day in their cell with little natural light – just four walls to keep them company. One of the ways that Prison Fellowship adds colour to inmates’ lives is through a program called Art From Inside. This year, South Australia introduced its first such program. Art From Inside encourages inmates to use their creativity to produce works that express who they are and what they are going through.
Despite only having permission to use standard HB grey pencils at this stage, Prison Fellowship volunteers run these classes once a fortnight and have been received enthusiastically by the inmates.
The classes are simple with a focus on drawing and sketching. Our art teacher brings in different pictures inmates can use as a guide. Many of the guys who attend have been “inside” for a long time and will remain in prison for months or years to come, so attending this 2-hour session once a fortnight has become a highlight. Although still not using colour pencils, it brings colour into these men’s lives.
– Ian Townsend, SA/NT State Manager
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