Theatre performances, audio content, dance workshops, art exhibitions, writing labs, and speaker series on arts in carceral spaces — these are just some of the ongoing initiatives we help provide across Colorado. Our work centers on the delivery of arts-based experiences that are educational, therapeutic, and reflective. By facilitating dialogue and empowering individuals to tell their stories, we build communities that are changing the conversation about prison.
Through various courses and workshops encompassing all artistic modalities, we help build educational and therapeutic environments that serve as spaces for expression, healing, collaboration, community-building, and innovative thinking.
In 2025-2026, we are partnering with Impact Arts to provide and expand visual arts and interdisciplinary classes at Sterling, Fremont, Colorado Territorial, Arkansas Valley, and Crowley County correctional facilities.
Over the past few years, DU PAI offered 15-week in-person courses on dance & movement, songwriting, theatre-making, set building, and beyond in numerous facilities as well as 12-week correspondence courses to students who weren’t able to participate in in-person programming due to their higher custody levels.
We help organize exhibits and community events featuring the creative works of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated artists. We also support the building of safe spaces for discussions around rehabilitation through the arts, including the quarterly speaker series "Art Saves Lives" which spotlights the journeys of artists in and outside prisons.
We are partnering with DU's Vicki Myhren Gallery and RedLine Contemporary Art Center to organize a mural workshop led by a formerly incarcerated artist with justice-impacted youth, culminating in the display of a large-scale mural in galleries.
We are partnering with Colorado Radio for Justice to produce an audio documentary series hosted by a formerly incarcerated radio talent historicizing the legal designation of "habitual offender" and highlighting its impacts on individuals and communities.
DU PAI team previously produced the With(In) podcast in collaboration with the CDOC and launched the Inside Wire radio station involving radio talents in various Colorado correctional facilities.
In 2025-2026, we are partnering with Unbound Authors to provide writing labs and courses in eight correctional facilities and to expand programming. We are also working on a journalism project across Colorado prisons that would involve the offering of storytelling and reporting classes in multiple facilities and the production of a new publication by incarcerated writers both in print and digitally.
In recent years, DU PAI has produced newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and journals featuring the work of incarcerated writers and creators.
DU PAI helps connect incarcerated cast, crew, and production teams to the public through live performances and audience talkback sessions. Arts-based performances serve educational purposes for both participants and viewers while encouraging new conversations about the role of art across communities.
In 2026-2026, we are partnering with Act Ensemble to produce a play in Sterling Correctional Facility, which will be followed by closing circles, oral history interviews, and the production of a podcast hosted by two incarcerated radio talents. Over the past years, DU PAI produced multiple plays and films across Colorado.
