Across the world, performing arts programmes are increasing in number, scope and professionalism. They attract increasing academic and media attention. Theoretical and applied research, organizational evaluation reports, documentary films and journalism are detailing prison arts and creating recognition that this body of work is becoming a valued part of the correctional enterprise. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests music, theatre, poetry and dance can contribute to prisoner wellbeing, management, rehabilitation and reintegration. Performing Arts in Prisons: Creative Perspectives explores prison arts in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Chile, and creates a new framework for understanding its practices.
Michael Balfour is chair of the Centre for the Arts in Development Communication at Griffith University, Australia.
Brydie-Leigh Bartleet is a professor and Australian Research Council future fellow at the Creative Arts Research Institute and Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. She is a dynamic research leader, award-winning educator, respected community collaborator and arts sector advocate. Over the past twenty years, her work has advanced our understanding of the cultural, social, economic and educational benefits of music and the arts in First Nations’ communities, prisons, war-affected cities, educational and industry contexts. Her research is known for its innovation, interdisciplinarity and cross-sector partnerships and has connected music with areas as diverse as social inequality, regional development, criminology and corrections, health equity and human rights. She has worked on seven nationally competitive grants, eight research consultancies with leading arts and social sector organizations and five prestigious fellowships totalling well over $3 million. She is currently the president of the Social Impact of Music Making international research platform, a director of QMF (formerly Queensland Music Festival), associate editor of the International Journal of Community Music and a course director for Global Leaders Programme, MBA in arts innovation. In 2014 she was awarded the Australian University Teacher of the Year, and in 2022 she was a Fulbright Scholar at New York University Steinhardt.
Contact: Creative Arts Research Institute, Griffith University, South Bank Campus, PO Box 3428, South Bank, QLD, 4101, Australia.
Linda Davey is a psychologist, theatre maker, arts educator, and academic. She was Research Fellow with the Captive Audiences project, based at Griffith University. Linda has worked as a senior psychologist in prisons and as a researcher with numerous publications in the area of offender rehabilitation.
Associate Professor John Rynne has extensive theoretical and applied knowledge of Australian and international criminal justice systems. His academic qualifications are in psychology and prison reform. From 1998 to 2002, as a Research Fellow at the Crime Research Centre of the University of Western Australia, he studied the impact of private prisons on the Australian custodial system with particular reference to Queensland.
Huib Schippers has a long and diverse history of research into music education, community music, artistic practice, arts policy, and the music industry. After establishing the World Music and Dance Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, he was the Founding Director of the innovative Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia (2003-2015).
