Prison Reimagined: The Presidential Portrait Project

Prison Reimagined is a collaboration between the Committee of Incarcerated Artists and Writers (CIAW), the Justice Arts Coalition, and Historic Lincoln's Cottage. Prison Reimagined features a series of portraits of U.S. presidents, and writing pieces that touch on people’s experiences within the prison system. 

The project was organized by Curator and Artistic Director Cadell “Monty” Kivett from inside a correctional facility in North Carolina. About the project’s inception, Cadell states, “…I had an improbable idea: Let’s have incarcerated artists draw portraits of our presidents, then invite those subjects to see what we had drawn. This, I knew, if staged in proper context would make for powerful commentary on mass incarceration and criminal punishment in America.” Since the project’s inception in 2021, Prison Reimagined has grown to an exhibition featuring 23 written and 23 visual works.

The exhibition has traveled to several locations, including Washington, D.C., Holyoke, Massachusetts, and most recently Indianapolis, Indiana.