Disciplines and Privileges
Details
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© 2011
- Dimensions (in inches): 6.5 x 6.75 x .75
- Materials:canvas, acrylic, book board, book cloth
- Collection of: artists collection (available)
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For 21 weeks in 2009 I created a book each week. The intent of this project was to move through ideas quickly; to get through what had become an onerous list of possibilities and to re-establish a connection with experimentation with both method and material.
Disciplines and Privileges reflects on an era when I was introduced to the concept of Therapeutic Communities, often otherwise known as residential treatment centers.
In 1967, a group of inmates in a Colorado state penitentiary, who were committed to breaking the cycle of substance abuse and the criminal behavior that supports their addictions, established Cenikor, a residential therapeutic community.
Therapeutic communities typically employ a system of phases, privileges and disciplines for their residents (clients) in order to promote change and make possible a drug-free life in the outside society. The therapeutic community forms a miniature society in which residents, and staff in the role of facilitators, fulfill distinctive roles and adhere to clear rules, all designed to promote the transitional process of the residents.
In 2004 the Colorado facility, the original Cenikor, shut down operations following the suspension of the nonprofit group’s license by the Colorado Department of Human Services because of alleged improprieties.
Complaints included the manufacture of methamphetamines on site, prostitution, intimate involvement of staffers with female clients and welfare fraud.
Three other Cenikor facilities, in Texas and Louisiana, still operate.