Washington State Reformatory's Creative Expressions Project

The WSR Creative Expressions Project (CEP) is a prison program involving offenders in public art projects. The program began in 1993 as an arts, crafts, and creative writing program for offenders at the Washington State Reformatory and the Washington Corrections Center for Women. It has evolved over the years into a public art program (now only at WSR) in which offenders work with local artists and Seattle University students on community art projects that provide offenders with the opportunity to give back to the community through their artwork and to spend time constructively while incarcerated.  

The program is coordinated by Seattle University Criminal Justice professor Jacqueline Helfgott and co-facilitated by local artist Kathleen McHugh-Roney. Many people have contributed to the program over the years including inside coordinator, Patrick Bolt, the Concerned Lifer's Organization, Monroe Correctional Complex hobby shop supervisor Richard Servatius, guest artists from the Seattle area, and Seattle University Criminal Justice and Psychology students, and the many WSR prisoners who participated in and contributed to the program. The program's accomplishments and community contributions include designing and painting Seattle Metro bus stops and YMCA murals, publication of 5 volumes of the Creative Expressions 'zine Sounds of a Grey Metal Day, a prisoner art show at the Seattle University Kinsey Gallery, and award and completion of one of the Pike Place market's "Pigs on Parade" which was sold at an auction to benefit the Pike Place Market Foundation.   

The group is currently working on a "library of murals" for the Washington State Reformatory visiting room and scanner area to create warmer surrounding for families, children, and friends of prisoners when they visit the prison. This current project was inspired by and is dedicated to the many children who visit prisons every day.