Events
JUSTICE RE-FORMED Gallery Opening
Join Art from the Inside at the people’s house for the unveiling of our latest exhibit, JUSTICE RE-FORMED! Experience powerful art and meaningful conversations at the State Capitol, Attorney General Keith Ellison's Office on Rev Dr Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard in Saint Paul, MN, USA. This gallery opening will showcase thought-provoking pieces created by individuals who have been impacted by the justice system. Explore the unique perspectives and experiences of these artists as they express themselves through their works. Don't miss this opportunity to engage with the community and support these talented individuals. See you there!
Paint with a Purpose Fundraiser for Art from the Inside
Paint with a Purpose Fundraiser for Art from the Inside
Join Art from the Inside for an evening of art and creativity! Support our organization at our Paint with a Purpose fundraiser!
Unity Church-Unitarian
733 Portland Avenue Saint Paul, MN 55104
Wellspring Wednesday at Unity Church
Wellspring Wednesday at Unity Church
Join Art from the Inside for Wellspring Wednesday at Unity Church in Saint Paul on October 4th where you can experience powerful works of art by artists currently serving time in Minnesota prisons.
Selected Works on View at Unity Church in Saint Paul
Selected Works on View at Unity Church in Saint Paul
Art from the Inside is thrilled to have our artists highlighted at this special exhibit hosted by Unity Church in Saint Paul!
AFTI at Selby Jazz Fest
The Selby Ave Jazzfest Experience
AFTI, in partnership with Ramsey County Workforce, will be in the mix at the Selby Jazz Fest highlighting our artists and connecting our returning neighbors to resources and employment opportunities. Featured artists, Apotheosis, Lux Thunberg, and Jennifer Marx will be mesmerizing visitors with their artistic skills creating on site original works of art! Hope to see you there!
ART IN THE GARDEN at Modus Locus
Enjoy an evening of live music, fresh air, and art! Featuring Art from the Inside, Dixieland and Bluegrass music by Band of Praise, Last Pick’d and Brass Solidarity!
Grand Old Day on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul
The official Kickoff to Summer is back! The largest free celebration in the Midwest has been a St. Paul tradition for fifty years. Come out and visit us! Some of artists will be there creating and selling their art! Come and meet Jennifer Marx, Apotheosis, and Lux Thunberg!
Chamber Connect: Art from the Inside at Creators Space
Join us for St. Paul Area Chamber’s monthly Chamber Connect networking series! These events are low-key networking events aimed at building and strengthening connections and supporting member organizations, businesses and venues.
Paint with a Purpose
Join us for an afternoon of painting and learning. Guided by artist, Karen Caldwell, you will paint your own piece based on artwork by Roberto Lopez-Rios. Experience the art on view in the gallery and hear from advocates about needed changes to extreme sentencing of youth in our state and what you can do to help.
Community Reception & Gallery Opening for 2023 Exhibition: IDENTITY, Part 2
Join us for an evening of art, community, and conversation. We are excited to bring people together to experience the powerful art and stories of the men and women in Minnesota’s correctional facilities and those that have come home. Registration and more details here.
2023 Exhibition: IDENTITY, Part 2
Join us for Part 2 of our series IDENTITY, April 5-30, 2023 at Creators Space. This exhibit will feature artists currently at the Minnesota Correctional Facilities at Rush City, Lino Lakes, and Shakopee, the only women’s facility.
Closing Reception at Inver Hills Community College, Selected Works IDENTITY
Join us at Gallery 120, Inver Hills Community College for the closing reception of selected works from the IDENTITY exhibition. Support our artists and experience the art. Refreshments will be served, meet the founder and AFTI board members too and be in community! Featured artists include Bill Bailey, Cyrus T., Eduardo Morales, Jason Bolstad, Junior, L. Maurice Martin, Luis Barajas Jr., Roberto Lopez-Rios, Shane Spicer, Starlin, Thomas L., Tommy Corrales, and Jennifer Marx!
Closing Reception for TRANSFORMATION at U.S. District Court Minneapolis
Join us for the closing reception at the Diana E. Murphy US Courthouse, Minneapolis. The reception will be open house style from 5:00-7:00pm. Judges of this court, lawyers from the Federal Bar Association are invited, along with family members of the artists and AFTI supporters. Featured AFTI artists include Billy Bailey, Dirk Goelz, Roberto Lopez-Rios, Lennell Martin, Nathan Schwartz, and Lamont Townsell
IDENTITY - Selected Works
Experience selected works from our IDENTITY exhibition, featuring artists serving time in Minnesota’s state prisons. Join us at Gallery 120, at Inver Hills Community College.
Open to the public:
Monday-Wednesday 10:00-6:00
Tuesday-Thursday 12:00-7:00
Art and Justice Night
Experience the powerful exhibition of original works created by artists incarcerated in our state prisons and learn about critically needed reforms in our criminal legal system. Hear from legal experts, advocates, and individuals impacted by outdated legal doctrines and inequitable sentencing guidelines that result in the over-incarceration of Minnesotans. Engage in creative conversations to understand what we can do collectively to create a more just system. Register here.
Healing the Community – Art, Incarceration, and Healing
Join us for a special event focusing on art, incarceration, and healing our community. Experience TRANSFORMATION, a powerful art experience giving voice to incarcerated artists in Minnesota’s correctional facilities in Stillwater and Faribault. Participants are invited to create a community quilt and participate in an informative introductory discussion about the healing nature of art and the process of creating art through a guided Art Therapy experience. Every participant will receive a bag of art supplies to take home.
During this experience, we hope to provide a safe space that will:
cultivate mindfulness and compassion
transform judgment to acceptance
orient the body and mind in the present
increase connection with the self and with others
DOC + Community Corrections + Community Partners Night
Join Art from the Inside and your colleagues for a special event to experience IDENTITY, our current exhibition featuring original artwork created by incarcerated artists from Minnesota Correctional Facilities in Stillwater and Faribault. Registration required for this event.
Gallery Opening and Community Reception
Art from the Inside will be presenting our 2022 fall exhibition, IDENTITY, featuring original works created by a diverse group of artists while serving time at the Minnesota Correctional Facilities at Stillwater and Faribault. Join us for an evening of art, community, and conversation.
Please register here to attend!
2022 Exhibition: IDENTITY
Giving a visual voice to incarcerated artists. Features original art from Minnesota Correctional Facilities.
Identity can be defined as "the qualities, beliefs, personality traits, appearance, and/or expressions that characterize a person or group." In this exhibit, the artists explore the construction and interpretation of how we see ourselves as individuals and how we see each other. The question “Who am I?” asks us all to consider the relationship between the individual and society. Human beings are a complex combination of who we innately are, informed by our lived experiences, our culture, our environments, by things we control and things we cannot control. While some aspects of an individual’s identity may be fixed or considered immutable, many aspects of a person’s identity change throughout his or her life and carry different weights at different times throughout our life. How do we embrace the complex layers of our individual and shared humanity? How do we crack open the rigid ways we define ourselves and the other. What does it feel like to give ourselves and others space to grow and grace to evolve? How do we open ourselves to the possibilities of hope, to change the story we tell ourselves and the stories we tell about the other.
TRANSFORMATION Selected Works at the U.S. District Court Minneapolis
Selected works from the TRANSFORMATION series will be on display at the Diana E. Murphy U.S. Courthouse in Minneapolis this fall as part of the U.S. District Court's Public Art Display Program. This Art From the Inside exhibition is the first installation from incarcerated individuals to be displayed at our federal courthouse and joins a long line of impactful and timely pieces from artists from all backgrounds. The court’s public art program, which began in 2018, has had the privilege of displaying works from a wide variety of artists over the years. From installations focusing on professional female artists, Black artists, Indigenous artists, and even student art, your work, via the Art From the Inside Project, is the first installation from incarcerated individuals to be displayed at our federal courthouse and joins a long line of impactful and timely pieces from artists from all backgrounds.
Featured AFTI artists include Billy Bailey, Dirk Goelz, Roberto Lopez-Rios, Lennell Martin, Nathan Schwartz, and Lamont Townsell.
A Stillwater State Prison guard creates an art project with inmates.
A Stillwater State Prison guard creates an art project with inmates.
Our short documentary is featured as a short film in the MSP Film Society 2022.
(Online) Art from the Inside + Just Education
Art from the Inside: pop-up exhibit and online panel conversation, in partnership with the Just Education Collaborative at the Weisman Art Museum.
Pop-Up Exhibition at the Weisman Museum
Art from the Inside: pop-up exhibit and online panel conversation, in partnership with the Just Education Collaborative at the Weisman Art Museum.
RSVP here to let us know you are coming!
Documentary and Q & A with Founder, Antonio Espinosa
Art from the Inside: Documentary and Q&A
TRANSFORMATION - Selected Works at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church
View selected works from our TRANSFORMATION exhibition at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church.
MONDAY–THURSDAY: 9am–6:30pm
FRIDAY: 9am–4pm
SATURDAY: Closed (open only during special events)
SUNDAY: 8:30am–12pm
Supporting Successful Transitions Post-Incarceration through Employment and Careers
Critical to the successful transition from incarceration to going back to the community is access to employment in jobs with family-sustaining wages. Please join Art from the Inside on Monday November 22 5:00-7:00pm at Creators Space for a discussion regarding the importance of access to employment and careers for formerly incarcerated individuals. The conversation will include employers, people working with formerly incarcerated individuals during their transition back into the community, and Brian Dorr, a Senior Lecturer at the Carlson School of Management, an Instructor at Metro State University, and a Principal HR Business Partner for Hennepin County, who is conducting research on this topic.
Speaker: Brian Dorr
Register here:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/support-successful-transitions-post-incarceration-via-employment-and-career-tickets-209477882987
Art, Incarceration, and Healing our Community
Join us for a special event focusing on art, incarceration, and healing our community. Experience TRANSFORMATION, a powerful art experience giving voice to incarcerated artists in Minnesota’s correctional facilities in Stillwater and Shakopee. Participants will be invited to create a community quilt and participate in an informative introductory discussion about the healing nature of art and the process of creating it through a guided Art Therapy experience. Every participant will receive a bag of art supplies to take home!
During this experience, we hope to provide a safe space that will
cultivate mindfulness and compassion
transform judgment to acceptance
orient the body and mind in the present
increase connection with the self and with others
gain understanding of how we all fit together in a diverse community
create a broader understanding of what it means to be human without any labels
We will be joined by clinical program therapist from MCF-Faribault, Liz Bechel and Dr. Raj Sethuraju, associate professor at Metropolitan State University in the School of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/art-incarceration-and-healing-our-community-tickets-208758019857
Art, Incarceration, and Transformation - Faculty and Students Special Event
Join Art from the Inside on Wednesday, November 17th at 5pm at Creators Space in downtown St Paul for an evening of art and conversation about the intersections of education, incarceration, healing, and transformation. View the exhibition and Art from the Inside documentary.
Art from the Inside was started by correctional officer, Antonio Espinosa, who started this project as a way to foster transformation, healing, and forgiveness after his friend and fellow correctional officer, Joseph Gomm, was killed by an inmate. Antonio envisions a correctional system where people come out of it stronger and more resilient than when they entered, supported by a community committed to their success.
Join us to experience the art, learn about the artists and the project, and engage in the uncomfortable conversation about incarceration.
Register here to attend https://www.eventbrite.com/e/art-incarceration-and-transformation-tickets-207670125937
2021 Exhibition: TRANSFORMATION
2021 Exhibition: TRANSFORMATION
Join us from November 5-December 3, 2021 at Creators Space for the next exhibit featuring new artwork by incarcerated artists from the Stillwater and Shakopee correctional facilities.
Hours the exhibit will be open:
Walk in every Wednesday 2:00-5:00 PM OR 5:00-7:00 PM by reservation
Walk in every Thursday 2:00-5:00 PM OR 5:00-7:00 PM by reservation
Walk in every Friday 2:00-5:00 PM OR 5:00-7:00 PM by reservation
Every Saturday 12:00-5:00PM
Every Sunday 12:00-5:00PM
If none of these times work for you, please email us at artfromtheinsidemn@gmail.com to set up a time for a showing that works for you.
Creators Space is a creative community. It’s a place for those looking to work alongside others that are embracing their creative spirit.
Minnesota Museum of Art
We are Partnering with the Minnesota Museum of Art in Downtown Saint Paul
We are ecstatic to exhibit the work of several incarcerated artists in partnership with the Minnesota Museum of American Art.
We are exhibiting new artwork from artists from the Stillwater and Shakopee correctional facilities throughout the Saint Paul skyway and the museum’s window gallery. Stay connected with us and the Minnesota Museum of American Art. We will be sharing more information about the artists and the exhibit on our website.
Come down from October 30, 2021-January 29, 2022.