Join us on Tuesday, December 10, 2019, 6:30pm, for a conversation with Chief Curator Claire Gilman, Artist Timothy Curtis, and Community Leader Dawan Williams. To purchase tickets ($5) please click here. Presented in conjunction with The Pencil Is a Key: Drawings by Incarcerated Artists.

The Drawing Center’s Chief Curator Claire Gilman, artist Timothy Curtis, and Dawan Williams, Program Coordinator for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Restorative Justice Guild program, will discuss art making in the context of the modern US prison system.

Dawan Williams is a Philadelphia-based community leader; he is Restorative Justice Program Manager for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and the Program Director for NOMO (New Opportunities More Options) Foundation and PA FACT (Pennsylvania Fathers and Children Together). In these roles Williams works closely with at-risk youth in high-risk probation circumstances, while NOMO and FACT focus on early intervention and reconnection between incarcerated parents and their children. Williams is a trained life skills professional, and serves the formerly-incarcerated on a day to day basis to help them successfully re-enter society while on parole and probation. He is involved with several non-profit organizations geared towards uniting families, strengthening communities, and restoring justice across the nation. In 2016, Williams was invited to perform a Ted Talk on the theme of Stronger Families, Better Futures discussing the impact of incarceration on children and families.