96 Acres Project
96 Acres Project (2012-2016) was a series of community-engaged, site-responsive art projects that involved community stakeholders’ ideas about social and restorative justice issues and examined incarceration's impact at the Cook County Jail on Chicago’s West Side and beyond. Begun by Maria Gaspar with many community partners in 2012, it used multi-disciplinary art practices to explore incarceration's social and political implications on communities of color. 96 Acres Project and its collaborators aimed to generate alternative narratives reflecting on art, power, and responsibility. Over multiple years, we produced eight site-responsive projects at and around the jail's perimeter that engaged local youth, teachers, activists, artists, families, and local officials. Enlace Chicago served as the central advocate for the project and the Chicago Public Art Group as the fiscal agent.