Journal-News profiles RAG co-founder Aimee Wissman, tracing how art became a source of connection and agency during incarceration—and how that experience helped shape the Returning Artists Guild.
Long before she co-founded the Returning Artists Guild, Aimee Wissman began making art while incarcerated as a way to stay connected to her young daughter.
In a Journal-News profile, reporter Keith Bierygolick traces Wissman’s journey from addiction and incarceration to becoming a working artist and co-founding the RAG, a community supporting artists who are currently and formerly incarcerated. The story explores how making art gave Wissman a sense of agency in prison and ultimately helped inspire work that creates opportunities for other artists impacted by incarceration.
The profile was published alongside Home Free: Ohio Artists Envision Prison Abolition, the RAG exhibition at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts featuring work by 16 artists directly impacted by the carceral system.
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