Portraits of Resolution by William Estrada, Anthony Rea, and Erica Brooks, in collaboration with 96 Acres Project, was a mobile photo studio stationed in front of the Cook County Courthouse for a period of one month in the Fall of 2014. Artist/Educators invited participants to think critically about the role and impact of the Cook County Jail through documenting the communities that interact with the jail on a daily basis. There were over 100 portraits collected and over 2,000 pictures taken of passerby. By artists: William Estrada, Anthony Rea, and Erica Brooks, in collaboration with 96 Acres.
Founded in 2012 and led by artist Maria Gaspar, 96 Acres is a series of community-engaged, site-responsive art projects that involve community stakeholders’ ideas about social and restorative justice issues, and that examine the impact of incarceration at the Cook County Jail on Chicago’s West Side. 96 Acres uses multi-disciplinary practices to explore the social and political implications of incarceration on communities of color. Through creative processes and coalition building, 96 Acres aims to generate alternative narratives reflecting on power and responsibility by presenting insightful and informed collective responses for the transformation of a space that occupies 96 acres, but has a much larger reaching outcome.
For more information: 96acres.org or contact Maria Gaspar at 96acresproject@gmail.com.
