Barring Freedom explores our nation’s troubled history of mass incarceration and policing. In response to the imprisonment of more than two million people in this country, the majority Black or brown and predominantly from poor communities, the artists in Barring Freedom creatively confront the historical and racialized biases within the criminal justice system and the economic and social problems that the system serves to obscure.

In the last forty years, the number of people in prisons, jails, and detention centers in the United States has grown by 500%. One out of every twelve families in the country is directly impacted. Yet, for many who have not been directly affected by policing and incarceration, this societal shift has happened largely out of sight, buried within national debates around history, racism, law, and order. The artwork in Barring Freedom makes visible the social harm done by the prison system, particularly to Black lives, and the profound failings of national promises of freedom and equality. But the future is not without hope. As these histories and experiences of oppression are shown not to be natural, normal, or inevitable, the space for envisioning a future beyond mass incarceration emerges.

As Covid-19 ravages its way through prisons, jails, and detention centers, and uprisings across the country respond to the violence wrought by police on Black lives, it is with renewed urgency that Barring Freedom brings together artists who re-imagine the possibilities of justice for all in the United States. Barring Freedom underscores the importance of art to highlight and inspire reflection about these challenges and emphasizes the critical roles artists play in envisioning new worlds built on true equality.

Barring Freedom is co-organized by UC Santa Cruz Institute of the Arts and Sciences and San José Museum of Art. It is guest-curated by Rachel Nelson and Alexandra Moore.

The exhibition is made possible with generous support from the Nion McEvoy Family Fund, Ford Foundation, Future Justice Fund, UC Santa Cruz Foundation, Wanda Kownacki, Peter Coha, James L. Gunderson, Rowland and Pat Rebele, UC Santa Cruz Porter College, and annual donors to the Institute of the Arts and Sciences.