Projects

The following are key projects that are planned or underway. We are open to new project suggestions and offers of collaboration.

International Journal for Creativity Inside published with the Florida State University Institute for Arts & Art Therapy with the Imprisoned (AATI).

Proposed presentation and panel at the 2026 IP Mosaic with Dr. Metka Pocočnik, University of Wolverhampton Law School: "Knowledge and information migration among organizational fields: The case of arts-in-corrections"

Proposed side event at the 71st session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women with Dr. Metka Pocočnik, University of Wolverhampton Law School: "Curating Power: Women's Creativity in Prisons"

We are writing a Model Act: The Carceral Creativity and Poverty Reduction Support Act for use as legislation to provide public support for creativity in prisons at the national and state level (in progress).

Policy paper, Scholars Strategy Network: "Unfetter Creativity in Prisons."

Directory of Arts In Corrections (AIC) Providers: Please add new AIC program information here.

Federal Credit Union for the Justice Involved in collaboration with First Step Alliance.

Guidelines on "How to register a copyright application from prison" (5 pages may be printed on one side to pass prison mail censorship, where applicable): Prison Copyright Registration Protocol.

A template in Word format for an agreement to assign or license copyright from a creator in prison to a trusted teacher for later exhibition, publication, or donation: Artwork Ownership and Copyright Rights Agreement for a Single Artist

Interview with John R. Whitman by Dr. David Gussak, Director of the Institute for the Arts and Art Therapy for the Imprisoned, 19 May 2026

Author interview with John R. Whitman by Valerie Cartonio, PrisonPOD, 21 October 2025.

Watch Copyright Behind Bars, a panel presentation at the 2023 IP Mosaic Conference, co-hosted by University of Illinois Chicago Law School, with panelists Jeanie Austin, Ph.D., Librarian, Jail and Reentry Services, San Francisco Public Library; Wendy Jason, Founder and Director, Justice Arts Coalition, nonprofit national network for those creating art in and around the criminal justice system (invited); Doran Larson, Ph.D, Professor of Literature, Hamilton College and Founder and Co-Director of the American Prison Writing Archive; Viva R. Moffat, Professor of Law, Co-Director, Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program, Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, advocating for IP rights for currently/formerly incarcerated and society; and Fury Young, Founder and Co-Executive Director, FREER Records, formerly Die Jim Crow, the first nonprofit record label for currently and formerly incarcerated artists.

Watch Henry A. J. Ramos, Senior Fellow, Institute of Race, Power, and Political Economy, The New School, New York, interviewing John R. Whitman on Prisons of Creativity here.