NEW ORLEANS, LA.- The Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University opened the exhibition, Unthinkable Imagination: A Creative Response to the Juvenile Justice Crisis, an original exhibition exploring one of the most critical issues facing our communities today – mass incarceration. A follow up to the 2019 award-winning show Per(Sister) which explored the overlooked and misunderstood impacts of the carceral system on women, Unthinkable Imagination focuses the lens on young people’s experience with the justice system. As a state Louisiana ranks last in the economic well-being of children and 48th in education yet spends $155,000 a year per child imprisoned as compared to $11,000 a year per child in public education. 73% of children in Louisiana’s juvenile prisons suffer from mental illness, 57% of the youth are adjudicated for offenses that involve neither violence nor weapons, and even though juvenile arrests have fallen by 40% since 2005, the number of youth kept in confinement has remained relatively the same with 65% of them serving full term and nearly half returning to custody within three years. Research clearly shows that youth who enter the juvenile justice system are more likely to remain in poverty, less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.

Unthinkable Imagination asks the question – why is it that in a moral society we accept the fact that young people in desperate need of community support, access to mental health resources, and an educational system that empowers them, are locked away in jails and prisons, separated from family, friends, mentors, and the support of their communities at the time that care and connection is needed most?

Centering the voices and experiences of more than 20 system-impacted youth participants, the exhibition utilizes paintings, illustrations, photographs, performance, sculpture, sound, collage, and mural work to navigate this difficult topic. While addressing the history of the youth justice system in Louisiana, the root causes of the system, and the direct harm it does to young people and their families, the show constantly underscores what is truly lost when we give up on the youth of our state—their humanity. Through the art, audio, color and movement, Unthinkable Imagination aims to constantly point – metaphorically and visually – towards the future by asking us all the question what could a Louisiana without youth prisons be? 

As one young person involved in the show succinctly answered, “Somewhere I’m supposed to be.” By lending their voices, talents, experiences, and creativity, the youth involved in Unthinkable Imagination have fashioned a place of belonging and ownership, a place where joy takes precedence—where their dreams are center stage. We invite you to see, hear, and feel these stories. We hope that you to leave here changed, moved to action on behalf of the youth of our state, to ensure that they have the freedom to be kids and the freedom to shape their own future.

The exhibition includes commissioned artwork from Abdul Aziz, Nic[o] Brierre Aziz, Adrienne Brown-David, Nya Carolington Skipper, Aubrey Edwards, Dave Greber, Robert Jones, Ivy Mathis, Demond Matsuo, Louise Mouton Johnson, Gyanni Paris, Pat Phillips, McKinley “Mac” Phipps, Jr., Sheila Phipps, Nik Richard, Vitus Shell, Mariana Sheppard, Sha'Condria “iCon” Sibley, Maxx Sizeler, Charm Taylor and Breanna Thompson. Additionally, the exhibit features art projects created with youth, in workshops led by teaching artists Langston Allston, Jose Cotto, Cherice Harrison-Nelson, Linda A. Reno with Nic[o] Brierre Aziz, Sheila Phipps, and Marta Rodriguez Maleck.