'More Than A Number' exhibition showcases Cal Poly Humboldt Prison Arts Collective art

ARCATA, Calif. — The following is a press release from Cal Poly Humboldt:

“More Than A Number” is an exhibition that features more than a dozen artists from Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City. Paintings, papercraft, crochet, beadwork, drawings, and carvings will be on display at Cal Poly Humboldt’s Reese Bullen Gallery from Feb. 16 to March 11.

The gallery also hosts large prints of the murals inside the yard at Pelican Bay State Prison, offering a chance to see artwork that most people do not get to see.

An opening reception will be held Thursday, Feb. 16 from 4:30-6 p.m. at the Reese Bullen Gallery. Light refreshments will be served, along with an introduction to the artworks by Prison Arts Collective (PAC) Humboldt Chapter organizers and a past program participant.

Since Spring of 2021, faculty and staff of the Department of Art + Film at the University have worked to develop and maintain a chapter of PAC to offer arts instruction and material support for artmaking at Pelican Bay State Prison. PAC is a statewide pairing of California State University art departments and state prisons, which began in 2013. It operates through a belief that art is an inalienable human right. The institutional partnerships are designed to foster creative self expression in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, such that people who are experiencing incarceration can have access to the transformative power of making and exhibiting art.

An artist talk is scheduled with the artists of Pelican Bay State Prison for Thursday, Feb. 23 from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in the Art B room 102 lecture hall, and broadcast via Zoom. For more information, please see updates and event information at artfilm.humboldt.edu/galleries.

The Reese Bullen Gallery can be found on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus in the Art B Building, near the corner of Laurel Drive and B Street in Arcata. The gallery is open Wednesday-Thursday from 12 p.m.-6 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. It is closed Sunday-Tuesday. It is also open via appointment — please contact the gallery director at rbg@humboldt.edu or Brittany.Britton@humboldt.edu, or call (707) 826-3629. Admission is free. Parking information is available at parking.humboldt.edu or (707) 826-3773.

More information on this exhibition is available at artfilm.humboldt.edu/galleries along with a forthcoming virtual tour of the exhibition. More information on Prison Arts Collective and how to support its efforts at prisonartscollective.com.