We live between fences. We may hardly notice them, but they are dominant features in our lives and in our history. Built of hedge, concrete, wood and metal, the fence skirts our properties and is central to the American landscape. We use them to enclose our houses and neighborhoods. They are decorative structures that are as much part of the landscape as trees and flowers. Industry and agriculture without fences would be difficult to imagine. Private ownership of land would be an abstract concept.

But fences are more than functional objects. They are powerful symbols. The way we define ourselves as individuals and as a nation becomes concrete in how we build fences.

Through an examination of boundaries, place, and space, Between Fences will explore how neighbors and nations divide, protect, offend, and defend through the boundaries they build.

 

This exhibit runs from June 13, 2009 - July 26, 2009

• Listen to a story about A Day at Stateville from WBEZ's Eight Forty Eight

A Day at Stateville is a short play detailing a newcomer's first day at Stateville Correctional Facility in Joliet, Illinois. Conceived and written by men who participate in the prison's "Life Transformation Through Communication" course and who are all doing natural life without parole, the play seeks to inspire community members to take action in reducing the number of at-risk youth from entering prisons, while also advocating for improving the daily conditions prisoners face.