Students in MMC’s Prison Education Program Debut Powerful New Work in NYC Exhibit
Open gallery
On her first day teaching in MMC’s college program at the Taconic Correctional Facility for women last summer, art professor Mollie Hosmer-Dillard had a proposal for students. Introducing the charcoal drawing project her class would take on that semester, she suggested that their finished works be exhibited not inside the facility but in Manhattan—bringing their creations and the deep feeling that went into them to the outside world. Though many of her students had never created art of any kind before, the answer was an immediate, unanimous yes.
Hosmer-Dillard thought it might be. Having taught in corrections settings for five years, where any number of restrictions govern incarcerated people’s speech and interactions, she had discovered that “it’s hugely motivating for students to be able to make artwork that’s going to leave the prison and be out in public where it’s seen by people they don’t know, and people they do know,” she said.
On November 17, Hosmer-Dillard and her class saw their vision become reality. At a pop-up exhibition held in New York City’s Central Synagogue, attendees viewed the students’ work: 17 individual charcoal drawings and a seven-and-a-half-by-nine-foot group piece, all grounded in themes the class developed together. Using “seasons of life” as a guide for their individual drawings, students explored everything from their experiences as incarcerated mothers to their determination to find success in the classroom and beyond. For their communal project, “Women’s Labor,” they examined women’s seen and unseen contributions to family and society through a collage of drawings arranged in a heart shape.
“One of the things that I try my best to do is position exhibitions around students’ perspectives and the value of their critical consciousness about society and how society works,” Hosmer-Dillard said. “That usually comes out quite naturally in art classes.”
MMC has run the college program at Taconic—located an hour north of the city—in partnership with the nonprofit Hudson Link for Higher Education since 2019. The College has operated a similar program at the neighboring Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women since 1997, awarding more than 300 degrees to incarcerated students altogether. But this exhibition, and the visibility it offered Taconic students, was something new.
Traditionally, the Department of Corrections has not allowed artwork created by incarcerated people in prison to leave their facilities, said Sean Pica, Hudson Link’s executive director. He noted that Taconic’s warden, however, had been supportive of the college program’s exhibit and appreciated that Hosmer-Dillard and staff planned to bring back photos of attendees interacting with the students’ pieces, which would then be displayed at the facility. In that sense, Pica said, the show is “connecting populations that know about each other, but don’t often get to interact. “It’s a cool moment,” he said.
Indeed, as a testimony to how much the class and exhibit have meant to participants and the wider college program, Taconic students recently selected Hosmer-Dillard as Teacher of the Year.
Betsy P. ’25 was the only student from Hosmer-Dillard’s class to attend the exhibition, having been recently released. She recalled the painstaking—and messy—process of working with charcoal, the patience required as the drawings took shape, and the elation she and her classmates felt once the projects were completed. “I’m so proud of myself, and so proud of the girls in there,” she said. “And I’m so happy that I’m able to be here because nobody else [from our class] is out here with me.”
Jenny G., who graduated from Taconic’s college program in 2024, excitedly viewed each drawing, looking for work from old friends. Seeing their creations, she said, “makes me feel close to them.” She could only imagine how encouraging the project must have been for them on the inside.
“Things like this make you feel like you’re seen, because in prison you’re super isolated,” she said. With their art on display, she added, “It’s like a little piece of them is out here in what we call the ‘real world,’ mingling and socializing amongst people. And that’s just perfect.”
Published: November 25, 2025
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