Creativity, Care, and Connection: Celebrating Arts Therapy at Rikers Island

Art can give people a way to express what is difficult to put into words. At Rikers Island, creative arts therapists bring that opportunity into mental health care, helping patients find expression through music, visual art, writing, and performance. Their work, and the creativity of the people they serve, deserves our community’s attention.

This exhibition came to our attention through Jeff Angell, a creative arts therapy supervisor and music therapist at Rikers Island’s Robert N. Davoren Complex. Jeff is a terrific bass player, and his wife, Jennie, is a wonderful vocalist. We’re pleased to share the important work Jeff and his fellow creative arts therapists do and to help bring their patients’ creativity to a wider audience.

OANA is pleased to share Enlivened Arts as Resistance, the tenth multimedia exhibition from NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services’ Creative Arts Therapy program. More than 120 participants contributed over 150 works, including poems, illustrations, plays, and musical tracks. Available online, the exhibition offers the public an opportunity to see and hear creative voices from inside the city’s correctional health system.

The Therapists Behind the Work

Correctional Health Services has 13 creative arts therapists, working primarily with patients in mental health therapeutic housing units at Rikers Island. Patients participate in individual and group sessions with licensed creative arts therapists as part of their mental health treatment. This is not simply an opportunity to pass the time: creative expression is part of their care.

The exhibition brings that work beyond the walls of the facilities. It invites audiences to recognize the imagination, skill, and individuality of people whose lives are too often understood only through their incarceration. As the program’s director, Dr. Barbara Bethea, explains, the exhibition represents patients who “use art to resist stigma and marginalization.”

A Chance to Be Seen and Heard

One participant, Jacqueline R., describes discovering a new way to express herself:

“I always said, ‘I’m not really that good at art,’ but my personality is really colorful. So I resisted that thought and found out that I can show my true colors through art.”

That sense of discovery is central to what makes this work worth sharing. NYC Health + Hospitals notes that arts programs for incarcerated people can support self-esteem, emotional well-being, and social connection while reducing stress and anger. Public exhibitions also help participants feel seen by the community, creating a connection between people in custody and the neighborhoods to which they will return.

This year’s exhibition also includes, for the first time, work by Correctional Health Services patients in the Outposted Therapeutic Housing Unit at Bellevue Hospital, extending the exhibition’s reach to people receiving hospital-based care for complex medical needs.

Explore the Exhibition

We encourage our neighbors to spend some time with these works and to recognize the therapists who make space for creativity, dignity, and connection in a challenging setting.

Exhibition catalog

Music: Audio collection one

Music: Audio collection two

Dramatic performances

The exhibition is also available through the Bloomberg Connects app.

NYC Health + Hospitals announcement

Our thanks to Jeff for sharing the exhibition, to his fellow therapists for their dedication, and to the participants for allowing the wider community to experience their work.