Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis is an original exhibition exploring one of the most critical issues facing our communities today – mass incarceration. A follow up to the 2019 award-winning show Per(Sister) which explored the overlooked and misunderstood impacts of the carceral system on women, Unthinkable Imagination focuses the lens on young people’s experience with the justice system.

As a state Louisiana ranks last in the economic well-being of children and 48th in education, yet spends $155,000 a year per child imprisoned as compared to $11,000 a year per child in public education. 73% of children in Louisiana’s juvenile prisons suffer from mental illness, 57% of the youth are adjudicated for offenses that involve neither violence nor weapons, and even though juvenile arrests have fallen by 40% since 2005, the number of youth kept in confinement has remained relatively the same with 65% of them serving full term and nearly half returning to custody within three years. Research clearly shows that youth who enter the juvenile justice system are more likely to remain in poverty, less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.

Unthinkable Imagination exhibition asks the question – why is it that in a moral society we accept the fact that young people in desperate need of community support, access to mental health resources, and an educational system that empowers them, are locked away in jails and prisons, separated from family, friends, mentors, and the support of their communities at the time that care and connection is needed most?

Centering the voices and experiences of more than 20 system-impacted youth participants, the exhibition utilizes paintings, illustrations, photographs, performance, sculpture, sound, collage, and mural work to navigate this difficult topic. While addressing the history of the youth justice system in Louisiana, the root causes of the system, and the direct harm it does to young people and their families, the show constantly underscores what is truly lost when we give up on the youth of our state—their humanity.  Their joy. Through the art, the audio, the color and movement, Unthinkable Imagination aims to constantly point – metaphorically and visually – towards the future by asking us all the question: What could a Louisiana without youth prisons be? As one young person involved in the show succinctly answered, “Somewhere I’m supposed to be.”

By lending their voices, their talents, their experiences, and their creativity the youth involved in Unthinkable Imagination have fashioned a place of belonging and ownership, a place where their joy takes precedence—where their dreams are center stage. We invite you to see, hear, and feel these stories. We hope that you to leave here changed, moved to action on behalf of the youth of our state, to ensure that they have the freedom to be kids and the freedom to shape their own future.

Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis is a collaborative exhibition steered by an advisory panel made up of Syrita Steib, Dolfinette Martin, Gina Womack, Aaron Clark-Rizzio, and Ernest Johnson and with the support of their respective organizations Operation Restoration, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, and Ubuntu Village.

Syrita Steib, Dolfinette Martin, Gina B. Womack, Ernest Johnson and Aaron Clark Rizzio are the museum’s equal partners in the creation and development of the exhibition, together with special projects curator, Miriam Taylor Fair, guest curator, Jennifer M. Williams, and Newcomb Art Museum curator, Laura Blereau. Critical research for the exhibition has been facilitated by Andrew Mellon community engagement coordinator, Lexus Dawn Jordan, curatorial assistant, Alex Landry, and research assistant, Hanan Al-Bilali.  Further support was provided by Operation Restoration, Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, Ubuntu Village, and the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights.

Sponsor Credit:
Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis is supported in part by grants from the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Program support comes from the Dorothy Beckemeyer Skau Art and Music Fund at the Newcomb Institute and the Mellon Program for Community Engaged Scholarship.

Exhibition Dates:
January 21 - June 10, 2023