Teaching Artist Talks
Arts in Corrections
Watch Teaching Artist Talks:
Arts in Corrections video playback below!
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This 90-minute webinar will feature a keynote by Daizha Brown, Policy Analyst with the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), who will discuss their recent findings from an article, Creative Pathways: Arts Education in Juvenile Justice Systems. Following the keynote, there will be a panel discussion by teaching artists and experts who will share their insights and experience working in youth and adult correctional settings. ​
Keynote Speaker and Panelists
Keynote Speaker
Daizha Brown
In her role as a policy analyst, Daizha provides relevant information on arts education policy and other education policy topics for education leaders across the country. Prior to joining the Arts Education Partnership, Daizha completed her bachelor’s degree in political science at Colorado State University where she gained experience in policy research and the nonprofit sector. Daizha believes in creating equitable education policies to ensure all students in this country have a fair opportunity to pursue a comprehensive education that includes the arts.
Panelist
Leslie Bumstead
Leslie Bumstead is a poet, writer, and teaching artist in Maryland and DC. She teaches creative writing workshops for incarcerated adults in several Maryland prisons and poetry to non-speaking autistic teens and young adults, and she co-created Maryland’s first distance-learning arts program for incarcerated women during the Covid lockdown in 2020. She manages literary programs and events at community art space Rhizome DC. Her collection of poems, Cipher/Civilian, was published by Edge Books in 2005. Other works, including essays and translations, have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines.
Panelist
Carien Quiroga
Carien Quiroga, an award-winning multimedia visual artist & educator uses her artmaking and teaching practices to engage with creative communities, both locally and internationally. Social Justice, mindfulness and collaboration are at the core of her creative and artistic work. Carien has worked in both youth and adult carceral spaces since 2007, leading visual art & mural painting workshops for incarcerated youth and adults, including those on the mental health units. Carien is on the Maryland State Arts Council Teaching Artist Roster. She is a Visual Arts Instructor for the Maryland Department of Education: Office of Fine Arts - Maryland Centers for Creative Classrooms. She is the co-founder of Solidarity Arts, a visual art and creative writing collective that develops and delivers both in person and distance learning arts instruction to jails and prisons, most recently at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility and Howard County Correctional Facility in Maryland. Her teaching also includes professional development for educators as well as collaborative mosaic mural-making projects in schools, hospitals, residential treatment facilities, senior centers and schools working with students of all abilities and ages.
Panelist
Tiffany Richardson
Tiffany Richardson leads a multi-faceted career as an administrator, educator, performer, and entrepreneur driven by her passion for meaningful impact. As Co-Artistic Director of Sound Impact, she spearheads Sound Impact’s work partnering with youth impacted by the justice system, fostering self-expression and personal growth. Her work has focused on forging connections between the arts, life-long learning, social justice, technology, and wellness through work with the National Orchestral Institute + Festival, National Philharmonic and the Kennedy Center’s Citizen Artist Initiative. As a performer and teaching artist, Tiffany regularly appears at Strathmore, the Kennedy Center, and Wolf Trap, as well as juvenile detention centers and schools across the country.
Panelist
Michael Thigpen
Michael Thigpen's professional life has been profoundly shaped by his profound commitment to aiding underserved and at-risk youth in the justice system. His dedication, spanning over thirty years, is a testament to his unwavering resolve. Michael's commitment is evident, having served as a detention superintendent in two states and currently serves as the Reentry Advocate and Resident Mentor at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center. His passion for integrating the arts into the Juvenile Justice System further underscores his empathetic approach.
One of Michael's key initiatives is "Bright Voice in the Darkness," a nonprofit outreach program designed to offer hope and compassion to incarcerated youth by letting them know they are valued and their individual stories are still being written to fulfill a unique purpose. Michael's nonprofit organization also provides resources, mentorship, and support access points to help youth transition successfully into society.
He is an alumnus of Anderson University, where he earned a degree in Organizational Leadership and a Master of Business Administration; he is currently pursuing a PhD in Criminal Justice studies. Michael is a visionary leader dedicated to bringing change and empowering young people to seek brighter futures.