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Richard Ross: Girls in Justice
This winter, the Figge Art Museum will partner with Augustana College to present Girls in Justice and Juvenile in Justice, a nationally acclaimed project by photographer Richard Ross. Each year in the United States, as many as 150,000 minors as young as 10 are booked into confinement facilities for reasons ranging from truancy to violent crime. Many have histories of abuse, abandonment and addiction. Throughout the past eight years, Ross has traveled to juvenile detention facilities across the country, photographing these young prisoners and their surroundings, and recording their stories. The result is a heartbreaking account of young lives caught up in a system that is not always geared to act in their best interests.
From January 17 through March 15, the Figge will present Ross’ most recent photographs in the project. Titled Girls in Justice, these 53 large-scale photographs focus on the stories of young women Ross has encountered in juvenile detention facilities. Each image is accompanied by the girl's personal story, in her own words. Ross will speak at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 12, in the Figge’s John Deere Auditorium. The next day, Friday, March 13, he will be present at the opening of Juvenile in Justice at the Augustana Teaching Museum of Art, which will continue through April 18. The exhibition features more than 50 earlier images and stories from the series.
Ross holds the title of Distinguished Professor of Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work has been exhibited internationally, and monographs of his work have been published, including in Museology and The Architecture of Authority. Ross has published two books in conjunction with this project: Juvenile in Justice, with a foreword by Ira Glass, host of NPR’s This American Life; and Girls in Justice, with a foreword by Marian Ross Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. Both books will be available in the Figge Museum Store.
This exhibition will be on display January 17, 2015 - March 15, 2015.
Companion Events
6 pm Thursday, January 29 - Film: What I Want My Words to Do to You
7 pm Thursday, February 19 - Any One of Us: Words from Prison
5:30 pm Thursday, March 12 - Closing Reception
7 pm Thursday, March 12 - Artist Talk
Tours
Augustana Exhibition Events
4 pm Friday, March 13 - Juvenile in Justice Opeing Reception
7 pm Tuesday, March 24 - Panel Discussion: Juvenile in Justice
Richard Ross, Houston Juvenile Detention Center, Houston, Texas, 1, 2012.
Funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Sunday April 14th