A man in jail did not have the supplies to produce any art in his confinement, so he used a mixture of Elmer’s Glue and coffee grounds to construct a picture of a woman.

To create the hair, he twisted pieces of toilet paper and dipped them in shoeshine.

The piece is entitled “Tarbaby’s Obsession” and the artist, Virgil Williams III, is imprisoned in Michigan.

This is just one example showing the need to make art, said Stephen Hartnett, member of the steering committee for the first annual Champaign-Urbana Prison Arts Festival.

The event is co-sponsored by the University of Illinois Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society and Opensource art.

The festival is taking place April 20-22, at Opensource, a local art venue. The event will consist of several activities that the entire community can partake in.

At this event there will be a traveling collection of prisoner art collected by the Prison Creative Arts Project of Ann Arbor, Mich.

“The collection of art was put together by a group in Ann Arbor, Mich. who collected works made by incarcerated people and displays them around the country,” said Tim Green, a member of the planning committee. “The local Books to Prisoners program at IMC has also collected some local artwork by prisoners to display.”

Buzz Alexander, a member of the University of Michigan PCAP, said in a phone interview that the exhibition started in 1996, making this year the 11th annual show. The exhibition in Ann Arbor consisted of 247 Michigan artists from about 44 different prisons.

Alexander said this year the exhibition in Michigan took place in March and had an audience of more than 3,700. The 370 works of art exhibited sold more than $15,000 worth of art.

“People have said it’s the best art they have seen,” Alexander said.

Three curators in Ann Arbor chose the 30 best pieces to display in Champaign. The idea to bring parts of the exhibit to Champaign-Urbana was based on the interest from Hartnett, who was one of the former guest speakers at the Ann Arbor event and a friend of Alexander.

In 1990, Hartnett started teaching in prisons in Indiana, Michigan and California, teaching prisoners whatever subjects they were interested in learning about.

“I learned from my experiences that most of the prisoners went to prison when they were young, drunk and involved in drugs,” Hartnett said. “The sad thing is that when they are given the time to grow up and clean up, they are people just like us.”

Hartnett said prisoners have hopes, desires and dreams just like us. Many of them want to paint and express themselves artistically.

“I want to enable prisoners to express themselves and get it out in public,” Hartnett said.

The artwork submitted is made up of a variety of different forms of art such as oil paintings, pen and ink, biographical sketches, nationalist pieces, science fiction, comedy and horror themed works, Hartnett said.

“For some of the prisoners, art is a way for them to escape,” Hartnett said as he pointed to a picture of a dancing man. “Art is as varied and complicated as the human condition.”

Hartnett has hopes to make the event in Champaign an annual event similar to the one in Ann Arbor, Mich., using mainly local works.

“The idea of the event is that if you come to the events and are moved by them, then you can sign up for one of the numerous organizations that will be there,” Hartnett said. “It is a community effort.”

Hartnett wants to convey an uplifting and empowering feeling while giving people a hands-on opportunity to get involved. He said the whole team of people involved is worried about what is going on throughout the prison systems and have a goal to raise awareness about the problems.

Matt Hart, a member of Opensource, said Hartnett was the “brains and central energy” behind the Prisoners Arts Festival. Hart also said this was the first touring art show that Opensource will host.

“I think people will be surprised by the quality of the artwork,” Hart said. “There is some pretty (expletive) good stuff.”