Courtney Bowles
Courtney Bowles is an artist, educator, and community organizer who uses art as a vehicle for connecting diverse communities to build empathy and support for social justice movements. She is the co-director of the Philadelphia Reentry Think Tank and The People's Paper Co-op, an ongoing initiative of The Village of Arts & Humanities that connects individuals in reentry with artists, civil rights lawyers, and many others, to run a multitude of programs and initiatives.
At the core of her practice is the belief that those most impacted by systemic social issues are the experts society needs to listen to, and that by connecting those directly affected with a multitude of community experts and political stakeholders, change can be created on personal and systemic levels.
Awarded Grants
2016
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
Related grantees
Overview
Courtney Bowles organized a Think Tank of returning citizens, artists, activists, and legislative experts to answer this question. Together, they worked to create the "Reentry Bill of Rights: A Blueprint for Keeping us Free"; a "People's Reentry Platform," a legislative proposal drafted from the feedback of over 1200 legal clinic participants from across the city; and a project newspaper filled with art and advocacy materials made by Think Tank Fellows. The Think Tank is an ongoing program, providing biannual paid fellowships for formerly incarcerated individuals. They use art to create media campaigns, exhibits, and films to destroy stereotypes about those in reentry, their families, and communities. They’ve consulted with the Public Defenders and the Mayor’s Office of Reintegrative Services (RISE) to help create a more trauma informed space and make the environment more welcoming to clients; transformed much needed, but often sterile legal spaces into welcoming, empowering, and generative organizing spaces; and exhibited their work in many places, including Philadelphia City Hall, the Federal Detention Center, church basements, PAFA, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (as part of Philadelphia Assembled), and the Open Societies Foundation in New York.
