Laurie Jo Reynolds

Laurie Jo Reynolds is an American artist most known for her work in policy and social practice. She is a current Assistant Professor of Social Justice at the School of Art and Art History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.^[1] She was awarded a Blade of Grass Fellowship for Socially Engaged Art in 2014, a Creative Capital award for Emerging Fields in 2013,^[2] and a Creative Time Annenberg Prize in 2013.^[3] Working in what she calls "legislative art," her work primarily manifests outside the gallery or museum,^[4] though she has been included in exhibitions at the Santa Monica Museum, and the Van Abbemuseum.^[5][6]

Tamms Year Ten

In 2008, Reynolds organized the Tamms Year Ten project, which sought to and led to the closure of the Tamms C-Maxx prision in 2013.^[7]

In 1998, the Tamms C-Maxx prison was opened in southern Illinois as a maximum security prison designed for prisoners to be kept in solitary confinement. The Tamms Poetry Committee was formed by a group of artists with the intention of providing social comfort to the prisoners in the form of a poetry exchange. Communications between the artist group and the prisoners uncovered a variety of awareness around inhumane conditions that the prisoners were being kept in. Reynolds, an artist who emerged as leader of the Tamms Poetry Committee, coined the term "legislative art" in order to raise awareness around the extreme solitary conditions that the prisoners were being kept in. The Tamms Year Ten project was created in 2008 to organize a formal policy campaign that eventually led to the closure of Tamms C-Maxx prison in 2013.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Awards

• Open Society Foundation Soros Justice Fellowship (2010)^[12][13]
• Creative Capital award for Emerging Fields (2013)^[2]
• Creative Time Annenberg Prize (2013)^[3]
• Blade of Grass Fellowship for Socially Engaged Art (2014)
• Opportunity Agenda Fellowship (2015)^[14]

References

1. "Laurie Jo Reynolds | artandarthistory.uic.edu". artandarthistory.uic.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
2. "Creative Capital - Investing in Artists who Shape the Future". creative-capital.org. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
3. "Khaled Hourani and Laurie Jo Reynolds Win Creative Time’s 2013 Annenberg Prize | In the Air | BLOUIN ARTINFO Blogs". blogs.artinfo.com. Retrieved 2016-03-24.
4. Kennedy, Randy (November 4, 2012). "Voting Against Ruffled Feathers". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
5. "Citizen Culture: Artists and Architects Shape Policy - SMMoA". SMMoA. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
6. "Van Abbemuseum: Detail". vanabbemuseum.nl. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
7. Extreme Punishment: Comparative Studies in Detention, Incarceration and Solitary Confinement.
8. Various (2012). Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991-2011. New York: Creative Time Books. p. 212.
9. Chicago, Laurie Jo Reynolds; IL; USA; Chicago, Stephen F. Eisenman; IL; USA. "Tamms Is Torture: The Campaign to Close an Illinois Supermax Prison". Creative Time Reports. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
10. name, Site. "Laurie Jo Reynolds, selected by Anne Pasternak / Art Review". artreview.com. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
11. "On "Legislative Art": Laurie Jo Reynolds and Tamms Year Ten - The Brooklyn Quarterly". The Brooklyn Quarterly. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
12. "Foundation Announces 2010 Soros Justice Fellows". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
13. "Laurie Jo Reynolds". Open Society Foundations. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
14. "2015 Communications Institute Fellows | The Opportunity Agenda". opportunityagenda.org. Retrieved 2016-03-26.

External links

• Profile at the University of Illinois at Chicago