Future Projects

I. FOR INTERNAL REVIEW Beginning Winter 2002

Brief Description
Workshop that allows mothers and mothers-to-be to create CD-roms and handcrafted storybooks that articulate their passions, hope and daily experiences to their children and their children yet to be born. The workshops will be conducted by an artist team that will lead the women through exercises designed to allow them to use the creative process of making art as a means for communicating to their children. Projects are designed to be shared with the child in stages as it matures.

Goals

•Reduce the likelihood that children of incarcerated women will, themselves, end up in prison.

•Model strategies for the development of strong and effective organizations working to transform the prison system.

•Combat the expansion of the Digital Divide

•Educate the general public about the nature and extent of the race, class, and gender inequalities woven into the current criminal justice system.

Why
Most of the children that will benefit from For Internal Review are considered "at risk," because their mothers have a history of drug abuse or have been victims of abuse themselves and come from chaotic backgrounds. General research indicates that social support to the mother increases the strength of infant-mother attachment. In addition, numerous longitudinal studies have concluded that early attachment patterns can potentially predict social behaviors later in life. One study indicated that the strongest predictor of excessive hostile behaviors toward peers in preschool was a disorganized attachment relationship during infancy, which suggests that interventions aimed at increasing mother-child bonding could decrease the likelihood of behavior problems later in life. For Internal Review is such an intervention.

II. ECHOES Beginning Summer 2003

Brief Description
The long term program will provide training, facilities, and equipment that will enable selected high school students to create a series of new media works and qualify for paid internships with Wirehead Multimedia. The subjects explored will be defined by the group but will have the focus of examining and responding to (echoing) work done by other teens.

Goals
" Delay onset of alcohol, tobacco, and illegal recreational drug use.
" Enhance performance in core academic subject areas.
" Increase likelihood of High School completion and successful enrollment in post-secondary institution.
" Decrease numbers of San Diego teens involved in criminal activity.
" Promote fair and more accurate reporting on teens and at-risk communities.

III. INTERGENERATIONAL GALLERY PROJECT

Brief Description
Adolescents and seniors from targeted similar populations (e.g. drug addicts, homeless, same neighborhood) are partnered and guided through encounters that allow them to share significant stories from their lives. Each member of the partnership then uses these stories as the foundation for the creation of a non-traditional portrait of the other person. Portraits will take the form of photo-text/sound collage. Final projects will be presented in a gallery installation.