ANN SAVAGEAU
CONTACT

PCAP

Prison Creative Arts Project – University of Michigan

JACKSON PRISON, MICHIGAN1999 TO 2002
Ann Savageau's black-and-white drawing: a man behind bars, with birds on the branches around him and on his shoulders

• ANN’S DRAWING

From 1998 to 2002, Ann was an active member of the University of Michigan Prison Creative Arts Project.

During those four years she taught a weekly art workshop to men at Jackson Prison, worked to secure the pardon or release of several workshop members, and helped curate the Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons, which today has a cult following.

In the summer of 1998, a chance encounter with my friend Prof. Janie Paul, cofounder of Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) at University of Michigan, changed my life. She asked if I would like to temporarily teach a workshop at Jackson Prison, and I agreed to do it. That led to me teaching a weekly art workshop at Jackson for the next four years, at the same time I was teaching undergraduates at Michigan. The workshop members became a small community of creativity, meaning and hope within a large punitive environment. Through the creation of art the men could let their imaginations soar beyond the walls and embrace all that is beautiful and good in the world. I met more extraordinarily talented artists in prison than in the non-prison world. I was happy that I could help secure the release of some of the men I met. And I am still grateful to those men, still my friends, for all that they taught and shared with me. I am a better person because of them.

Framed drawing by a workshop member: "Flowers From The Heart" hand-lettered across the top, with a large rose surrounded by smaller flowers, birds and insects.
Handmade card given to Ann by workshop member

01  •  THE WORKSHOP

A weekly art workshop, inside Jackson Prison.

Four works by PCAP workshop members: a painted screaming figure, a collage with a wristwatch, a drawing of a hooded figure beside a noose, and a drawing of a barred cell window
Collages and drawings by PCAP workshop members, Jackson Prison
Ann Savageau at a table of art supplies with two men from the workshop
Ann in the workshop

Now that we’re all in blue and orange, will the real thing, our bluebird sisters and brothers, recognize us as their kin?

FROM “MICHIGAN BLUEBIRDS,” A POEM BY ANN SAVAGEAU

"Flowers From The Heart," a drawing by a workshop member, photographed at the Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons in Ann Arbor.

• ANNUAL EXHIBITION, ANN ARBOR

02  •  THE EXHIBITION

Savageau helped curate the Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons from 1999 to 2001

Ann co-curated the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Annual Exhibitions of Art by Michigan Prisoners at the University of Michigan, from 1999 to 2001.

I am a better person because of them.

ANN SAVAGEAU

A BIT OF MY HISTORY CATALOGUEDABOUT PAGEMY CURRICULUM VITAEINTERACTIVE CVCLIMBER’S LIFE — A MEMORIAL PAGEA CLIMBER’S LIFE