Cherry Street Pier is now home to an art installation that is focused on ending youth incarceration by displaying art about incarcerated youth.
“Freedom Constellations,” is an informative and immersive experience put on by multiple nonprofit organizations in the city, including Performing Statistics and Mural Arts Philadelphia, and the goal is for people to see what it means to lock up kids and it does so with virtual and augmented reality.
The art exhibit will be showcased at the Cherry Street Pier from now until Sunday.
“These people behind these walls are people too, they have a voice just like I do and all the people I work with,” Maria Murray, a Juvenile Law Center youth advocate, said. “We want them to know that they’re not alone, we’re fighting with them.”
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The art installation doesn’t just focus on youth incarceration but it also highlights the need for prevention.
The exhibit shows statistics such as how much money is spent to incarcerate youth versus how much is spent on community resources that could be keeping them from ending up incarcerated, said Mark Strandquist from Performing Statistics, a national cultural organizing project that uses art to advocate for a world without prisons.
The installation was done in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia, the nation’s largest public art program that’s dedicated to the belief that art ignites change.
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“Regardless of the experiences that I faced or other youth faced, it doesn’t define us,” Duane Price, a Juvenile Law Center youth advocate and one of the people depicted in the art installation, said. “We deserve a chance, a second chance like everyone else.”
