A crowd of nearly 150 came together on a splendid early June evening at The Pond House Café at Elizabeth Park for our Celebrate! Prison Arts 2024” A Summer Soirée of Artistry and Storytelling.” The event, which raised over $60,000 for the Prison Arts Program, featured the music of Steve Moran, the Matt Dicks’ Speak-Up Storytellers, and the artwork of Vincent Nardone, Tracie Bernardi Guzman, Santos Cancel, Dennis Coleman, Mark Despres, Jeff McEwen, Yongmi Olsen, James Pace, James Pinder, Marcial Salgado, David Saucier, and James Taylor.
The mission of the Prison Art Program is to transform the prison and the lives of all those living and working inside it through the arts. This colorful exhibition featured 14 newly framed art pieces from our Prison Arts Program, the first time that these works were ever exhibited as part of the ongoing exhibitions of our Permanent Collection. Thanks to the generous support from so many individuals and foundations, we can continually build this remarkable collection that travels throughout the State and the nation. An absolute jewel of Connecticut, this collection is a testament of the program’s profound work, and of the many people incarcerated in our prisons.
Following opening refreshments and appetizers where guests placed bids in a silent auction, we heard brief remarks from CPA’s Executive Director Beth Hines, Operations Director Deb Rogala, and Board Chair Michael Kearney. Jeff Greene, Program Manager of the Prison Arts Program shared the history of the program and the upcoming Fall Annual Show at Manchester Community College.
CPA staff Tracie Bernardi Guzman (standing) and Robin Ledbetter (in white jacket), took part in the Matt Dick’s Speak Up Storytellers at Celebrate! Prison Arts, held on June 11 at The Pond House Café at Elizabeth Park.
Addressing the standing-room only audience, Greene acknowledged representatives of the Common Sense Fund and CPA’s sponsors and donors: “The success of the Prison Arts Program is the consistent connection that the program offers those incarcerated. We often hear people say, ‘the human spirt is indefatigable and uncrushable.’ Let me tell you, the human spirit is totally crushable, and it’s often crushed. CPA’s Prison Arts helps to counter that, by giving people hope as it connects people to do great things, and I’m sincerely thankful to our donors who contribute to this effort and the extraordinary impact they make with their contribution.”
Greene introduced Prison Arts Program Alumni Artist Vincent Nardone, who thanked the donors and sponsors for supporting this life affirming program. Formerly incarcerated for 40 years, Nardone won his freedom in 2016 and shared, “I’m looking at many, many good, kind, caring, and generous people, who think not only of their own families but of someone else who’s in a cage, of someone else who has nothing…but I don’t think they deserve to have nothing. And neither do you….Thank you.”
The silent auction winners were announced by CPA’s Development Director Sandra Bradford-Jennings who then introduced the Matt Dicks’ Speak-Up Storytellers. The group took the stage to tell poignant and personal tales of resilience, of overcoming trauma, and of finding hope and opportunity following incarceration. The Storytellers consisted of Dicks, Jeni Bonaldo, Marcus Burrus, Kaia Pazdersky, and CPA’s Robin Ledbetter, a Case Manager at the Hartford Reentry Welcome Center and Tracie Bernardi Guzman, a Case Manager at the Waterbury Reentry Welcome Center.
The evening was made possible by our sponsors: Collector Sponsors Diamond Roofing and The Pond House Café at Elizabeth Park; Connoisseur Sponsors Kainen Escalera and McHale, Smith Brothers, OneDigital, Anne Stanback and Charlotte Kinlock, and Cynthia and John Crouch; Palette Sponsors Adnet Technologies, Barnes Group Inc., Chuck & Eddies Used Auto Parts, Christine Carroll, and Michael Kearney; and Canvas Sponsor, The Hines Family. Additionally, we are grateful to the Community Partners in Action Development & Communications Committee, P. Edward Photography, and our event management team for their work coordinating the evening. If you missed the night, you can view our photo album here.