At The Hull House Museum Artwork Made While Doing Time

The other day Damon Locks was at Stateville Correctional Center in suburban Crest Hill, where he teaches art to inmates, when one of the prison’s guards wandered into his classroom. Each of Locks’s 11 students at the all-male maximum-security facility had spent the semester making brief animations with pencils and tracing paper—among the few art supplies allowed in the jail—and the curious guard was trying to get a sneak peek.

The museum sponsored Locks as a teaching artist through the Prison + Neighborhood Art Project, which has been offering humanities classes at Stateville since 2012. But only last week did the Illinois Department of Corrections grant PNAP’s organizers permission to discuss their work.

In June, to cap off PNAP’s semester, Locks is organizing an Eternals performance inside Stateville for the graduates. “We’ve been digging into their psyches,” Locks says, “so I’m glad I get to finally open myself up to them.”

Reception Thu 5/1, 4-7 PM Through 5/1/15: Tue-Fri 10 AM-4 PM, Sun noon-4 PM Jane Addams Hull-House Museum 800 S. Halsted 312-413-5353uic.edu/jaddams/hull