BY JESSIE WANG, LEAD WRITER (COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL AWARENESS)
The compositional process reaches us all differently. Some of us collaborate with composers, others undertake it as a profession, and most of us were forced to do it during our high school music years.
If you’ve ever experienced the compositional process, what benefits did you find?
Persistence, creativity, and flexibility are just some of the things I have in mind.
These benefits were undoubtedly in the mind of Wayne Kramer, who was there at the launch of Jail Guitar Doors in California to bring music to those who have been removed from society: inmates.
The original purpose of the project was to have a collaborative music process that unlocked inmates’ capacity to work with each other, and apply themselves to tasks – from beginning right through to completion.
With these benefits in mind, Dr Linda Lorenza got in contact with Wayne to replicate the program here on Australian soil.
With an impressive history of arts and community involvement – namely, as a Central Queensland University teaching scholar, and formerly the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Director Learning & Engagement and Bell Shakespeare Head of Education – I can’t think of a better person than Linda to bring the program to live here, Down Under.
Hi Dr Lorenza – thanks for taking time out of this incredibly hard and uncertain era. So tell us, what is Australia’s Jail Guitar Doors? How did this project come into fruition?
Named after The Clash’s song, Jail Guitar Doors, JGD was founded by Billy Bragg in the United Kingdom in 2007. The song was about American guitarist Wayne Kramer who was imprisoned in the United States for a drug offence in 1975. The Clash’s song was released in 1978. Wayne Kramer initiated the JGD program in U.S. prisons in 2009, and instigated the beginning of the program in Australian prisons while he was touring with Motor City 5 in February 2020.
Wayne’s team was put in touch with me through the International Teaching Artist Conference network, and I was able to help connect JGD with New South Wales Correctional Services, and the program began at Dawn de Laos in Sydney on 18 February – the day after the massive Bushfire fundraising concert.
JGD has begun in Risdon Prison in Tasmania during the MC5 2020 Australian tour.
We’ve all heard that music is an empowering tool, but why do you and Wayne choose to work with inmates as your target group?
When we visited the correctional facility, he talked to the inmates about the purpose of participating in the JGD program. Yes, they would play songs together, but they had to write the songs. He explained that they would experience teamwork and relationship processes that they needed to be ready for when they returned to the community outside prison. They would work in groups with people they might not like or have anything in common with. They would write a new song every week connected to a set topic. They would collaborate, negotiate and create.
So tell us, what is the process like?
For a musician, the process of developing and refining techniques, as well as learning and composing music, is intense. It requires regular and consistent application of the task. This is the same for the inmates participating in the JGD program. They will work in small groups every week with a visiting musician-educator who will mentor them in the task of devising and writing their own song each week for 16 weeks.
The JGD program calls upon philanthropic support to provide a set of acoustic steel string Fender guitars and a Cajon. The purpose of the program is not actually to teach the inmates to play guitar, but some will develop that skill on the way through. The purpose is to unlock their capacity to work with others, develop their social competence, their capacity to apply themselves to a task and to see it through to completion.
Research identifies that arts in correctional centre programs contribute to improved emotional literacy, better understanding of self, capacity to express emotions, increased empathy and reduction in impulsive behaviours.
Have you heard any stories from previous participants who are no longer incarcerated, but have found the project has made a lasting impact on them?
As the program has only just begun in Australia, I cannot share any local findings as yet.
Brewster’s 2014 evaluation of arts in prisons programs in California reported that inmates who participated in these programs noticed that they got along better with other inmates, liked themselves more, got along better with facility staff, studied more, had fewer disciplinary reports, and got along better with their families. That has to be a great set of outcomes for the Australian JGD program participants to aspire to.
I’m sure this project is just as eye-opening for you as it is for the participants. What is something you have learnt along the way?
I think the big thing for me initially was how supportive NSW Corrective Services were of the program being trialled in their facility.
I had previously taken Shakespeare into Juvenile Justice Centres with my work at Bell Shakespeare, and explored the triggering benefits of music playlists for dementia patients with the Arts Health Institute. I know as an artist and an arts educator that music, drama, storytelling, and the arts in general, are empowering. When we don’t know what to say or what to do, the creative process of the arts enables us to work it out. [The JGD program participants] have an opportunity to explore ideas and emotions that they previously may not have been challenged to explore and express. Doing this within a small group is simultaneously difficult and rewarding.
Your project was just starting when all these lockdowns and restrictions began. Has COVID-19 affected how the project runs?
Due to border closures, I have not been able to get back to Sydney to see the program in action. I hope to do so.
How is this project going to progress from here?
Progress from here is a little unknown due to COVID-19. Like so many outstanding applied arts programs, JGD is dependent on philanthropic support. I would love the federal and state governments to provide grants enabling us to put JGD and other applied arts program into facilities across the country, with funding for us to conduct longitudinal research into the impact of the programs.
For now, I will continue to liaise with Wayne Kramer’s team in the U.S., and lobby for support and expansion of this and other applied arts programs.
Are there any ways the classical musicians amongst us can get involved with this program, too? If so, how?
At this stage, I am certainly keen to hear from musicians who would like to learn about applying their music skills in different ways.
JGD has specific focus and targets in terms of participants and musician educators.
There are many applied arts programs occurring around Australia already, and I certainly encourage musicians, actors, artists, dancers to learn about them, and if you are inclined to share your craft, get involved.
When I was at SSO, we did programs in the Starlight Rooms in the children’s hospitals, and other programs for children with autism. Music makes a difference.
Is there anything else you’d like the arts community to know about JGD?
The arts community is really suffering right now. I am heartbroken to read about the enormous losses to the big arts organisations like Opera Australia through to the smallest fringe ensembles. I never imagined a respiratory virus would be the invisible enemy of the arts.
I encourage all artists to continue to make your art, be it in a different way. When the world gets back on its feet, it is the arts that we will all want to hear and see and experience. The arts are how we share our stories. They give us strength, hope and connection.
JGD is about empowering and enabling inmates to develop their capacities and skills to reconnect in their communities. We all need the arts in our lives.
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Images supplied. Featured image: Dawn De Loas Courtesy CSNSW. Autumn leaf via Unsplash.
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