Studio Sessions
Formerly incarcerated people, especially women, trans and non-binary individuals, face discrimination at
every juncture of the employment process, compounding years of institutional disinvestment. When they can find employment, they often work for low wages and in toxic and physically degrading work environments. The People’s Pottery Project “Studio Sessions” program provides economic support along with art therapy and professional experience in the arts to anyone who has experienced incarceration. Members are now able to spend up to ten paid hours per week learning how the ceramics studio operates and how to utilize creative pottery practices like wheel-throwing, hand-building, and glazing.

Reentry Ceramics Classes
People’s Pottery Project offers ceramics classes to women and trans people immediately upon their release from prison. These art-therapy ceramics classes are delivered in partnership with a New Way Of Life Reentry Project. Individuals roll, shape, and carve clay in their first session, and are invited to inscribe messages into the surface celebrating their freedom. PPP staff then fire the pieces and participants return to the studio to learn about glazing and finalizing their artwork. These classes offer an inspiring connection of women in reentry with PPP members who have navigated this transition home successfully and become leaders in their community.

PPP Formerly Incarcerated Leadership Program
People’s Pottery Project believes that leadership must be based in the lived experiences, desires, and objectives of directly impacted individuals. Unfortunately, people leaving prison face extreme obstacles in entering the workplace, maintaining a job that provides a living wage, and establishing the security to build sustainable organizations that can usher in a more just society. PPP addresses this by identifying leaders of disparate experiences in the formerly incarcerated community and providing them with full-time paid work, vocational training, trauma-informed workplace management, and leadership development.