Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project
WHO WE ARE
APAEP is a program at Auburn University dedicated to bringing educational opportunities to those in prison in Alabama. Our program is helping the adult prison population to gain a quality education, and also to build a relationship with learning that will continue to grow for the rest of their lives.
APAEP provides access to sustained and quality educational experiences in the arts, humanities, and sciences. We believe that education provides a fertile field for transformation and growth and that these learning experiences contribute to the positive development of every person.
APAEP BY THE NUMBERS
YEAR FOUNDED
2003
NUMBER OF CLASSES
243
NUMBER OF STUDENTS
3,650
CLASSROOM HOURS
6,624
BOOKS DONATED
21,000
LATEST CLASSROOM WORK
This September we released the latest edition of our anthology. Our anthology is a collection of work from classes that took place in 2013, 2014, and 2015 in prisons across the state of Alabama, through the work of the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project at Auburn University.
Contact us to get your copy.
“In retrospect now, what I remember clearest about that first APAEP class I took is not the course material but, rather, the light which appeared in some of my classmates eyes in response to the camaraderie created in the group or as they accomplished something meaningful for the first time in their lives. For some, the light continued to shine even after the course was complete.”
WHO WE WORK WITH
By partnering with multiple on and off campus departments, universities, state offices and non-profit organizations, not only does APAEP work to build educational opportunities for those who are incarcerated who seek to develop their education, but APAEP also builds dynamic teaching and learning opportunities for Auburn University students and faculty. This distinctive outreach opportunity builds a path for students and faculty at Auburn, as well as individuals throughout the state of Alabama, to engage with an underserved portion of Alabama’s population, but through this, to develop engaged scholarship and research projects.
AUBURN UNIVERSITY
APAEP partners with the Colleges of Science and Math, Agriculture, Engineering, Liberal Arts and Education, as well as working closely with Auburn University’s Office of Outreach. This fall APAEP has also moved into University College at Auburn University.
MORE HIGHER ED. INSTITUTIONS
APAEP has a strong partnership with the University of Alabama’s MFA Creative Writing Program to offer Prison Arts Fellowships to UA graduate students. Faculty and Graduate Students from Auburn University at Montgomery and University of Alabama at Birmingham have also worked with APAEP.
AL DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS
Working closely with the Alabama Department of Corrections, the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project at Auburn University is working to meet a great need in the state of Alabama.
WHERE WE CURRENTLY SERVE
APAEP serves in several different facilities across the state of Alabama.
This spring semester we are at nine different facilities:
Bibb Correctional Facility
Birmingham Women's Center
Bullock Correctional Facility
Donaldson Correctional Facility
Elmore Correctional Facility
Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women
Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women Annex
St. Clair Correctional Facility
Staton Correctional Facility
OUR TEACHERS
APAEP teachers are committed to the idea that all people deserve access to arts and education, and that all lives hold value. Our teachers range from graduate students from multiple universities in Alabama, to instructors and faculty at those universities, to individual artists, scholars and writers. Our teachers and former teachers have exhibited art nationally and internationally, they have published multiple books and regularly publish online. They are an inspiring lot of visionary teachers and are absolutely the backbone of this program.
Current Instructors & Their Classes:
Alex Bauer, University of Alabama -- Linguistics
Barb Bondy, Auburn University -- Drawing
Claire Lewis Evans, Artist, Tuscaloosa, Alabama -- Art
Rob Hitt, University of Alabama -- Debate
Connor O'Neill, University of Alabama -- History of Music in the 1950s
Santhi Tsingos, University of Alabama -- Creative Writing
Janek Wasserman, University of Alabama -- History
Mark Wilson, Auburn University -- Experience of War
DO YOU WANT TO JOIN US YET?
Last modified: August 22, 2017