OUR TEAM

jackie sumell is a prison abolitionist and multidisciplinary artist inspired most by the lives of everyday people. She has spent the last 2-decades working directly with incarcerated folx, most notably, her elders Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox. This work, anchored at the intersection of abolition, social practice, and contemplative studies, has been exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe. Sumell has been the recipient of multiple residencies and fellowships including, but not limited to a: 2022 Margarite Casey Foundation Fellowship, 2021 Art Matters Fellowship & Joan Mitchell Studio Fellowship, 2020 Art 4 Justice Fellowship, S.O.U.R.C.E. Fellowship and Creative Capital Grant, a 2019 A Blade of Grass Fellowship, MSU’s Critical Race Studies Fellowship, a 2018 Robert Rauschenberg Artist-as-Activist Fellowship, Soros Justice Fellowship, Eyebeam Project Fellowship and a Schloss Solitude Residency Fellowship. sumell’s collaboration with Herman Wallace (a prisoner-of-consciousness and member of the “Angola 3”) was the subject of the Emmy Award-Winning documentary Herman’s House (Best Artistic Documentary 2013). An ardent public speaker and organizer, sumell’s work with Herman has positioned her at the forefront of the public campaign to end isolation in the United States, inviting us to imagine a landscape without prisons. She is based in New Orleans, Louisiana where she continues to work on Herman’s House, Solitary Gardens, The Prisoner’s Apothecary, The Abolitionist’s Sanctuary, and several other community generated, advocacy based projects.