Creative Shelters: Art, Education, and Culture to Transform Prison

In February 2024, the Faculty of Philosophy and Education Sciences held the 1st International Conference "Art Opens Prison: Artistic Shelters in Contexts of Confinement", a space for dialogue between art, education, and cultural experiences developed in prisons in Spain and Argentina. Promoted by the teaching innovation project "Creative Overflows in the University Classroom," coordinated by Belén Massó, a member of the ABERTURA research group, this conference provided a space for exchange and convergence between prison realities from different latitudes, but united by the common desire to imagine and build other possible futures.

The event, a video summary of which is available here, featured Mireia Pepiol (social educator at Castellón II), Pilar Almenar (Impresas project in Picassent), Joaquín Vila (coordinator of the CIJ in Picassent), and representatives from the San Martín University Center (CUSAM), who discussed the role of social education, art, and international collaboration for inclusion and the defense of cultural rights in contexts of exclusion.

The San Martín University Center (CUSAM), located in Penitentiary Unit No. 48 in José León Suárez and affiliated with the National University of San Martín (Buenos Aires, Argentina), is an international benchmark for its innovative model, where inmates and prison workers study together university programs such as Sociology and Social Work, as well as artistic diplomas, in addition to a wide range of more than twenty cultural and trade workshops. Unlike other educational spaces in prison, CUSAM is committed to coexistence and shared learning, promoting the social transformation of both individuals and institutions—the university, the prison, and the territory itself—through academic, artistic, and cultural training.

Theater plays a central role in this initiative: under the direction of Sebastián Ostapow, the CUSAM theater workshop has staged plays such as "Potad" by Eduardo Pavlovsky, starring Luis Alberto Ángel Iñíguez, an actor and sociologist who graduated from CUSAM. During the event, CUSAM representatives shared the experience of staging "Potad," and, in his presentation, Luis Alberto recounted what it meant for him to play this role and how theater became a refuge and a space to redefine identity, question the mechanisms of power, and open paths toward justice, memory, and collective reflection on human rights inside and outside of prison (his testimony can be seen in the video summary of the event).

This conference marked the beginning of an emerging international collaboration process between CUSAM, the University of Valencia, and other Valencian organizations such as Iniciatives Solidàries. The project will continue next year under the title "Critical Overflows of the University Classroom: When Art Opens the Prison", with the Second International Conference, participatory workshops, roundtables on social education and art in prison, in-person visits from CUSAM representatives, and new artistic and educational initiatives both in prison and within the university community. This will continue to build this creative bridge that transcends walls and opens paths toward freedom and social transformation.

For those who wish to delve deeper into the reflections and testimonies shared:
• First discussion: education, art, and culture in Valencian prisons
Watch on YouTube
• Second discussion: dialogue with CUSAM (Argentina)
Watch on YouTube
• News in Clarín: CUSAM theater workshop and premiere of "Potestad"
Read the report
• Article in Página/12: "Potestad" in prison
Read the article
• News from UNSAM: theater as a refuge in prison
Read the news
• Full conference: full audio of the conference
Listen on iVoox