Only Prisoners' Art Show in State Opens at Information Center Today

The only prison art show in Massachusetts opens today in Holyoke Center under the sponsorship of Phillips Brooks House and the State Department of Correction. The display, consisting of inmates' oil paintings, sketches, and handicraft, will be at the information center on Dunster St. for the rest of the week.

State law ordinarily forbids the sale of prison-made goods outside the physical boundaries of the prison, but PBH has secured permission to act as agent for interested buyers and later make the official purchase within the walls of the prison.

The show is the second in the history of the state. The first, held last year by PBH, attracted 1200 spectators.

Among the exhibits at the show is a detailed model of a steam-driven fire engine about two and one-half feet long, and a series of sketches of President Kennedy.

Show Supplements Regular Program

The show, which was previewed last week at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Framingham, is a supplement to the regular PBH program of teaching in the state's five prisons. David C. Miller '64, chairman of the prisons committee, said the main value of the show was that it "gave the inmates a chance to be exhibited as artists, and not as freaks."

He pointed out that prisoners rarely have any contact with the outside world. "This type of exhibit gives people a unique way of thinking about prisoners, in terms of the men's talents and not their errors," he said.