PAST PROGRAMS
Higher Education in Prison
Our College in Prison program used a theatre-infused liberal arts curriculum to deliver college classes through a partnership with Georgia State University. The program's applied theatre techniques fostered creative-critical thinking and promoted self-actualization, connection, community, compassion, and consciousness-raising, all of which are essential components of the type of space and experience we are invested in creating.
PAST PROGRAMS
Theater Reentry Project
The Theatre Reentry Project created, presented staged readings of, and toured original plays about the experiences of reentering citizens. Participants were individuals who were formerly enrolled in Reforming Arts' higher education program during their incarceration as well as other individuals who were formerly incarcerated in women's prisons in Georgia. Participants in Metro Atlanta worked with Reforming Arts to create original plays that explore the struggles and complexities of reentry and the systemic problems surrounding mass incarceration in the United States.
Our Values
Creative Becoming's central essence is Care, manifested in our values
We embrace the core processes of Creative Becoming which nurture the awareness of whole being knowledge
We declare that the syndrome of false binaries (“yes/no”) is a pernicious force, and we take every opportunity to dismantle it, encouraging more expansive being of “yes, and...”
We believe in and encourage imagination and creativity as a wellspring of health and healing, and that every living soul inherently has these resources.
We welcome expansive questions and ideas discussed with kindness and respect, so that we can learn and grow together, to build collective understanding and a community of care.
We applaud courage in ourselves and others as we seek to face our fears.
We recognize and support resilience.
We stand as witness to improvisational theatre techniques that build trust, allow for courageous space for storytelling, inspire creativity, and create opportunities for connection.
We seek to heal trauma through Creative Becoming.
Our Staff
Our History
Reforming Arts Incorporated (RA) was a 501(c)3 organization formed in 2010 to provide liberal arts education to people under carceral control in Georgia’s women’s facilities. We began with one instructor teaching theatre in 2009. We added additional instructors and subjects in 2012. In 2014, we established the Certificate in Theatre-Infused Liberal Arts which included a capstone production. We developed the reentry project in 2013 to support our alumni and expand public discourse about mass incarceration. We launched a partnership with Georgia State University Prison Education Project (GSUPEP) to provide college credits in 2017. Reforming Arts - now changing its name to Creative Becoming - was forced to shut down all programs, based in Georgia women’s prisons, during the pandemic. The forced hiatus was both a bane and blessing: no in-prison programs, but also time to pause and take and reflect on what we’ve learned through the in-prison program.
It became clear during this time: despite our efforts to build resilience and address trauma, the prison-based model was traumatizing our leaders and teachers. This precarious situation made it clear that the binary (either/or) systems we lived in and taught from were false. For example, good/bad; self/other, and male/female create separation and power structures that create trauma.
To address these realizations, Reforming Arts accepted a new mission, conceived new programs built on an ethic of Care and “yes, and” being, and adopted new vision and values statements. Reforming Arts has stepped beyond the prison confines to evolve into a publicly available resource for healing trauma and creating narrative change.
Our Creative Becoming classes make somatic practices of theatre evident. We emphasize resilience, connection, and creativity throughout the program. We believe that the oppositional foundations of society are destructive Master’s tools that encourage competition and make us afraid of each other. Creative Becoming is an applied theatre method, teaching method, and post-qualitative research method developed while teaching inside women’s prisons. Thus, we are familiar with complex trauma and seek to work with people who have been subjected to traumatizing systems.