A Concrete Example of the Power of Art

The wall had stood more than 30 feet high, putty-colored and dull, dividing a large atrium at the suburban Prince William County, Va., Juvenile Detention Home. It did its job: separating female and male detainees, steering them through the drab units, a sober symbol that they’ve been cut off from the outside world.

“It was just ugly,” said Colleen, a 15-year-old detainee whose last name is withheld following county policy.

“Girls are not allowed to look on the boys’ side,” Colleen said, “and boys can’t even look over here .... It was one of the most depressing things about this place.”

But what began as a simple art project six months ago has transformed the wall into a forum for a kaleidoscope of dreams, emotions and feelings. With the help of Kristine Roberts, who has taught painting at the home for a year, a revolving door of young offenders has painted murals on each side of the wall, one abstract or realistic theme after another.

Female detainees created a vibrant garden scene of greens, purples, yellows and reds, with radiant butterflies and caterpillars. On the other side, the boys painted an inner-city landscape, with renderings of hip-hop artists and low-riders that morph into a fantasy of waterfalls and brilliant flowers.

The detention home provides short-term care of offenders, ages 9 to 17, apprehended for delinquency and other crimes that require secure custody. Most youths can be held at the home as long as 30 days, pending court disposition or transfer to another jurisdiction or agency.

“What we’re trying to do here is allow them to have their own little bit of space, something they have created,” said Roberts, 52, who teaches at the Manassas, Va.-based Center for the Arts. “Oftentimes, when they’re at home, they don’t get a chance to do that. This exercise gives them a sense that they’ve contributed to something larger.”

The murals have taken on a life of their own. They help detention home supervisor Barbara Jones better understand her charges, and give her a chance to work with them when their guard is down.

Some teenagers were excited about the project from the start. Others needed time to warm up to the exercise. Some dismiss it as a chore, something forced on them to pass the time.

“At first I really wasn’t into it at all,” said Ra’sha, 17, who is charged with grand theft. “Painting’s never been my hobby ... but it’s a good way of getting stuff off our mind and putting it on paper.”

For years, youths had helped decorate parts of the home with inventive paintings--a picture here, a window painted there. But Roberts and shift supervisor Jayne Frelin wanted something that would make a larger statement about the teenagers’ potential and talent.

“We just wanted something that would be here for a long time,” Frelin said. “All of the other things were seasonal. We’d put them up, then take them down.”

The murals’ development wasn’t always smooth. There were often emotional disagreements about the placement and color of various designs. Girls rallied to have one rendering of a bunny--originally painted with fangs dripping with blood by one girl--altered because the image disturbed them.

“Sometimes these guys got quite angry with each other,” Roberts said. “There was a lot of ownership with what they painted, what they thought was right and made sense.”

But it also became a communal wall for detainees working together on a specific image. They sit and stand, lean and grope, mix and massage the paint. They talk about how they got where they are, their anger and frustrations, the judge who sent them here and what they want to do when they get out.

“It brings us together,” said Mona, 15, at the home on charges of excessive truancy. “With a lot of the other things we do in here, you don’t get a chance just to get to know some of the other girls. Here we can just work on something together--something that’s fun and different.”

The program is funded through the same $40,000 worth of public and private funds that help pay for art programs that the Center for the Arts has in county group homes and alternative high schools.

Center Director Sally Lay said a larger project is more inspirational than a simple painting class. “It really opens up a dialogue between the kids and everyone who sees it or has worked on it,” she said. “People are always asking: ‘Why did they do it this way? What does this mean? What does that mean?’ ... I think that’s much more effective than simply sitting in classrooms.”

For Colleen, the 15-year-old, the wall is like a timeline, a reminder that she still has a long way to go. She helped paint some of the first designs in August, then went home. She returned in November, on probation violation offenses stemming from charges of car theft. She painted neon mushrooms and blades of grass then, she said, before leaving for her grandmother’s house.

Her signature with the date is written on the side of each of her contributions. This month, she’s back on probation violation offenses again.

“It kind of makes me see that I keep coming back here,” Colleen said. She sighed. “I’ve got to straighten up.”