From Prison to Stage
A special event, "From Prison to the Stage," organized by the Prison Foundation, is on Saturday, September 1 at 7 p.m.
Prison songs and dramatic sketches will be performed by ex-prisoners and other talented singers and actors, as part of the KENNEDY CENTER PAGE-TO-STAGE FESTIVAL. Free Admission. No tickets needed. The event is being held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (South Atrium Foyer Theater on the fifth floor).
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Another event to attent
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This powerful body of work was produced between 1998 and 2004, at a time when Htein Lin had been imprisoned by the Burmese/Myanmar military government, accused of planning opposition protests.
Already an established contemporary artist, as well as a comic actor and performance artist, he continued to paint secretly whilst in jail, using white cotton prison uniforms as a substitute for canvas and producing well over 230 works. While he was able to arrange for paints to be smuggled in by supportive prison guards, brushes proved difficult to obtain, and dangerous to keep.
However, he improvised with a variety of materials, such as soap blocks, syringes, cigarette lighters, pieces of netting, plates and mugs, even his own body, developing innovative printing techniques in the process. The abstract and figurative images that resulted depict prison life; the memories, hopes, fears and dreams of prisoners; Buddhist faith; and memorable events spent behind bars, the Millennium, for example.
In November 2004, shortly before the end of his sentence, a purging of Myanmar Military Intelligence was followed by a review of many prisoners’ cases. As a result, the military government informed Htein Lin that the case against him was unproven, and he would be freed.
On his release he thanked his jailers for providing him with the opportunity and inspiration to develop his art, and to quit smoking and drinking. He immediately resumed his artistic career in Rangoon.
Stefan Kosciuszko, Chief Executive of Asia House said, “Burma or Myanmar? By presenting these powerful works by artist Htein Lin along with a related programme of events, Asia House aims to encourage discussion and debate on a country little understood or noticed.”
And Katriana Hazell, Cultural Director of Asia House and curator of the exhibition said, “Burmese contemporary art is rarely seen in the UK and this is such exciting work. We hope Htein Lin’s exhibition and our related programme will help raise awareness of what is really going on inside the country, particularly amongst the artistic community.”
The exhibition will be accompanied by an education and events programme focusing on contemporary Burmese culture and society. It will include:
Contemporary Art in Burma, an evening of presentations and conversation with Gill Patterson and Chaw Ei Lin – Tuesday, July 31 from 6.45pm to 7.45pm.
Members Event, members only private view of the exhibition – Thursday, August 2 from 6.45pm to 8.00pm.
Family Day, a day of activities inspired by the exhibition – Saturday, August 4 from 11.30am -to 4pm.
Htein Lin will work with families designing expressive T-shirts using a range of materials, paints and printing techniques (T-shirts can be purchased at Asia House); while Chaw Ei Thein will involve visitors in performance art tasters and boldly expressive painting sessions, as well as Burmese arts and crafts.
The Lizard Cage, presented by acclaimed author and 2007 Orange Price Winner Karen Connelly – Wednesday, August 29 from 6.45pm to 7.45pm.
Set during Burma’s military dictatorship of the mid-1990s, Connelly’s exquisitely written and harshly realistic debut novel is a hymn to human resilience and love.
Musical Myanmar, a rare opportunity to hear live music by Burmese musicians – Wednesday, September 5 from 6.45pm to 7.45pm.
For more information visit the Asia House website.
FIRST UK exhibition of Burmese artist Htein Lin, Burma Inside Out, will be on display in the Asia House Gallery from July 27 to October 13, 2007.recycle and regenerate
Lorton Prison Reformed Into Arts Center
Workhouse to Feature Studios, Galleries, Performance Space
On a recent day as the sun blazed, a construction crew at the new arts center in Lorton drove a bulldozer straight toward one of the most visible reminders of this site's past: a forbidding fence that penned in prisoners when the buildings were part of the sprawling D.C. Correctional Facility.
For more than five years, a private arts foundation has worked to transform the prison's old workhouse off Ox Road into a gleaming arts center with studios, galleries and performance space. The $26 million Workhouse Arts Center will officially open next year, but in the coming weeks residents will glimpse the first major activity there since the foundation's members leased the property from Fairfax County last year.
The center has launched a schedule of painting, drawing and yoga classes in a borrowed space at a nearby shopping center; students and teachers will likely move into renovated classrooms on the 55-acre site later this fall. On Sept. 28, a black-tie fundraising gala will feature a performance by dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, an early supporter.
"This is an opening celebration to cultivate people and show them this is what we're doing, and this is the level of quality for both emerging artists and professionals they can expect here," said Tina Leone, the foundation's executive officer.
The center is the second major public amenity to open at the former Lorton penal complex, which sprawled over more than 2,000 acres in southeastern Fairfax County and housed thousands of offenders before it was shuttered in 2001.
Since that time, the county's Park Authority has taken responsibility for most of that land, building a golf course, which has a waiting list for memberships. Park officials also hope to partner with private groups to build a sportsplex and barn for riding lessons. The arts center will be in brick buildings that used to house lower-risk prisoners, called the Occoquan Workhouse. The county has yet to find a developer for the most visually prominent acreage, the land on which the penitentiary building and looming watchtower still sits.
The closing of the penal complex and the region's overall development boom fostered a blossoming in Lorton, a part of the county some residents thought had long been neglected.
Signs up and down Ox Road now advertise new subdivisions of million-dollar houses near the area now called Laurel Hill.
"When we first started, we thought we were entering a depressed area. There weren't any houses out here at all," said Sharon Mason, the Workhouse Arts Center's executive arts director. "Now new homes nearby are selling from $1 to $2 million. We're taking a look at our programming with the mindset of . . . what does this community want?"
Responding to what they hear, they are planning more dance performances and children's classes to attract some of the neighborhood's newer families, Mason said.
The arts center will likely be one of the most high-profile amenities in Laurel Hill, where organizers envision not just studio spaces for artists but also two restaurants, a theater, an event center, music programming in a nearby barn, a museum and lofts where artists can live and work.
Many of those features are in the distant future, organizers say. For now, the Lorton Arts Foundation is finishing construction of the 10 brick buildings that will be artists' studios, office space and the exhibit gallery.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 23, 2007; Page PW10