YRP Online Art Gallery 2011
The Yellow Ribbon Online Art Gallery consist of the artworks created by the inmates while serving time. Through art, inmates express their inner thoughts and feelings to their family members and community at large while at the same time, showcase their artistic talents.
Please show your support for the cause by adopting these special art pieces. Give them hope through your adoption, and provide the blank canvas they need to RestART their lives.
Come and discover the inner thoughts and feelings of inmates and ex-offenders, as each brush stroke paints their resolve to change for the better.
About the Yellow Ribbon Project
Every year, about 9,000 ex-offenders complete their sentences and are released from the various prisons and drug rehabilitation centres (DRCs). It is disheartening that ex-offenders have to live with the stigma of having served time behind bars when they are released from prison, one that can often be more punishing than the prisonsentenceitself.Manyex-offenders,oncereleased, find themselves literally stepping into a second prison; a prison with invisible bars, of suspicion, of mistrust and of discrimination.
The best rehabilitation regime is of no use if ex-offenders find themselves rejected at every turn when they are released back into the community. Through theYellow Ribbon Project, we hope to promote a more accepting and inclusive society, one that is willing to give ex-offenders a second chance at making good. It is important that we help unlock the second prison for our inmates, even as we let them out of the physical one
About the Art Exhibition
The Yellow Ribbon Community Art Exhibition 2011 provides a platform for inmates and ex-offenders to express their hopes and aspirations through art, showcase their artistic talents, foster closer family relationships and reach out to the community. Held at the Singapore Art Museum for the third time, the exhibition will feature original artworks by inmates weaving their creativity to illustrate the struggles faced on the path to reintegration.
Themed “Tomorrow is My Reality”, the exhibition is inspired by the sense of uncertainty and hope that inmates and ex-offenders face in their rehabilitation and reintegration journey, while recognizing that they have the power to determine their own futures.
Inspiration of the Yellow Ribbon Project
Launched in 2004, the Yellow Ribbon Project is inspired by the 70’s hit song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon round theOleOakTree”.This verse aptly represents the hopes and desires of many ex-offenders — that a simple Yellow Ribbon of their families and the community will help unlock the second prison.
A verse in the song reads:
I’m really still in prison and my love,
she holds the key, a simple yellow ribbon is what I need to set me free.
— Irwin Levine and L Russell Brown (1973)
The integral part of Art in Prison
Art and Prison do not appear to have much in common. Art reflects creativity and freedom in expression, while Prison suggests a regimented environment surrounded by barbed wire. Art plays a central role in the rehabilitation efforts in our prison, helping inmates develop and cultivate their creative talents. The rehabilitative art programmes in Singapore Prison Service aim to nurture artistic potential, encourage creative insights and facilitate a positive change in the mindset. Ultimately, art can help ex-offenders unlock their potential in employment, education, and eventual reintegration into society.