Prisoners from five jails turn artists and see hope for the future, thanks to an initiative by Kavita Shivdasani and Nishant Shah

You don’t have to be ‘free’ to creatively express yourself. Kavita Shivdasani and Nishant Shah have shown us just that with an initiative to put together paintings by prisoners of various jails across Maharashtra.

Through ‘Art from Behind Bars’, Kavita and Nishant seek to give prisoners an opportunity to showcase their talent and also earn the right way. “Many of the artists are up for release and need something to fall back on once they are out,” says Kavita, who runs ‘Know Your Environment’ classes for kids.

Five prisoners from the Arthur Road, Yerwada, Nagpur and Byculla jails, along with cop Sanjay Sawant and his aide Ganesh Sonsurkar, contributed around 120 paintings to the exhibition that was held at the Bajaj Art Gallery in March. The exhibition, where three-fifths of the artworks were sold, was the first step taken by Art from Behind Bars (AFBB).

The idea struck Kavita around two years ago. “This idea started developing after I had visited Arthur Road Jail with my students and met Baby John Parker, an undertrial and enthusiastic artist.”

She decided to take it up seriously and along with her students organised various kinds of door-to-door fundraising programmes. She visited prisons in the state and selected artists who were keen on painting. This was followed by a series of meetings and she is thankful to the police and prison authorities for their cooperation over the past two years that it took to put the exhibition together.

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