On being an artist

An encouraging graduation speech form the University of the Arts by Neil Gaiman.  This inspires me to aim to make good art and to enjoy the ride: http://vimeo.com/42372767

Social Justice ideas from MLK, a U.S. Ambassador and the bible

Some ideas I believe in:

-"All life is interrelated, and all men are interdependent.” -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, 1964

-“In 21st-century diplomacy, the Department of State will be a convener, bringing people together from across regions and sectors to work together on issues of common interest.” -Elizabeth Frawley Bagley

-“Remember those in prison as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies” – Hebrews 13:3, NLT

Alice Rowan Swanson Proposal

Stephanie McKee
Project Title:
"Social Rehabilitation through the Artwork of Zululand Prisoners"

Proposal:
    Article ten of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "the penitentiary system shall comprise treatment of prisoners the essential aim of which shall be their reformation and social rehabilitation. "  While in South Africa in July 2012 I will work toward these goals of treatment, reform and social rehabilitation in KwaZulu Natal prisons by volunteering with the Phoenix Zululand Restorative Justice Organization.  I will facilitate art programs in low to medium security prisons, drawing out narratives and giving inmates an outlet of self expression where few exist.
    I will then bring visibility to these drawings and paintings, along with Phoenix's current collection of drawings, by documenting the images and creating an open source online archive.  When made visible to the public, the emotions, aspirations and lives revealed in these images can help return a sense of humanity to Zululand inmates.  This visual archive can also help create a place for authentic indigenous African identities in the often Eurocentric modern high art world.
    Finally, I will collaborate with inmates to make a body of fifty photographs about their plans for the future.  To accomplish this, I will interview inmates about their plans upon returning to their communities, then paint images of their responses in the palms of their hands.  The final product will be photographs of these hand paintings, which will be exhibited in the United States.

Project Merit:
    During my SIT Independent Study Project, I worked as a Phoenix facilitator helping  prepare inmates to integrate back into their families and communities.  My collaborative hand-painting project will inspire hope in inmates by allowing them to see an image of their future in their hands.  When offenders transform into productive citizens, government and society benefit exponentially.
    Phoenix feels I am the ideal candidate for this work.  I am a self-motivated artist with a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Md. and have years of experience teaching art in disadvantaged communities.

World View:
    My experience abroad will allow me a degree of prison access not possible in the United States.  I will gain insight into successful methods of prison reform, a passion of mine that I hope to merge with the arts and pursue in the future.  Specifically, I aim to promote inmate rehabilitation by making correctional facilities more creative environments.  On a surface level, this involves working with inmates to cover the walls of their facilities with images that motivate them towards the future they desire.  On a programming level, I hope to work with the government or an NGO to develop new methods of art education in United States prisons, which currently detain over 2.3 million people, a higher percentage of the population than any country in the world.
    After attending grad school for fine art, I will also bring "outsider" art to the public eye by curating exhibitions and possibly teaching at the collegiate level.  Finally, my biggest aspiration is to always keep my studio art practice, creating collaborative work that promotes intercultural understanding by exploring African and intercultural identities.

Former SIT Study Abroad program:
Country: South Africa
Year/Semester: Fall 2010
Academic Director: John Daniel

Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu

"In South Africa we say, 'A person is a person through other persons.' I am me only because you are you. We are bound up in a bundle of life. When your humanity is undermined, whether I like it or not, my humanity is undermined, as well. We belong together. You cannot be human in isolation. You need other human beings."
— Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Acceptance Speech for the 2000 Delta Prize)

Prison Reform

The forward to the 2004 "White Paper on Corrections in South Africa" is, to me, a moving summary of why a more humanizing approach to prison reform is so necessary:

"For too long prisons have been regarded as breeding grounds of criminality, places of punitive authoritarianism and backwaters of everything despised by society. They also represented a microcosm of a divided country, racked by racial segregation and discrimination, as well as repressive measures such as solitary confinement and violent interrogation.
It took the political metamorphosis of 1994 to introduce the first steps along the path of respect for human life and human dignity. The transformation programme of this country’s first democratic government necessitated that prisons shift from institutions of derision to places of new beginnings. "

Michael Subotzky

"The Art of Healing"

A cool video from South Africa's Mail and Gaurdian newspaper:

http://mg.co.za/multimedia/2011-09-15-the-art-of-healing

Photography Portfolio

Click here to view Stephanie McKee's South African Photography Portfolio.