From announcement:

Richmond, Virginia- Richmond Police Department will meet with formerly incarcerated youth, artists, and advocates for juvenile justice reform in a community forum designed to create an exchange of perspectives on issues concerning the juvenile justice system. The event will be hosted at the Richmond Public Library’s Main Library (101 E. Franklin St.) on August 26, 2016, from 5:30-8 p.m. The hope for the forum is to spark an honest and heartfelt conversation about the relationship between the needs of young people and law enforcement.

This event will be the culmination of three trainings conducted that week for up to 75 officers of the Richmond Police Department. During the training the officers will create a piece of art that allows them to present themselves not as officers, but as fellow humans. Their artwork will be exhibited alongside various artworks created by young people incarcerated at the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center during a program called Performing Statistics offered by the nonprofit ART 180.

Since June, teens from the detention center have been meeting three days a week at ART 180’s teen art center ATLAS. Working on various projects including poetry, video, photography, and stenciling, their work addresses their experiences in the system and the support they wish they had in the community. “If justice was transformed, I would be doing work, not time,” wrote one teen.

Conceptualized in 2014, the Performing Statistics project is now a permanent program of ART 180 in partnership with Legal Aid Justice Center. The unique collaboration connects incarcerated youth to juvenile justice reform advocates in Virginia with the goal to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. The art created by the teens shares a rare perspective of the juvenile justice system from a first-hand experiencer. Ultimately, Performing Statistics looks to the youth most affected as the experts whose voices are important for building a more just, equitable world. As one of the program participants explained, “It’s not where you’re from, but where you want to go.”

Future events to look out for are an October exhibition at ART 180’s ATLAS gallery that will feature the work created this summer by incarcerated teens,, as well as the program’s second annual Justice Parade for Incarcerated Youth.

More on ART 180 at www.art180.org
More on the Performing Statistics project at www.performingstatistics.org