Later this month, the University of Scranton will host an art installation that showcases hundreds of portraits drawn in pencil.
Artist Mark Loughney completed the 771 drawings of imprisoned people during his own ten-year incarceration.
The Hope Horn Gallery at the University of Scranton will present Loughney’s collection, "Pyrrhic Defeat: A Visual Study of Mass Incarceration," from Friday, April 21 through May 12.
There will be a panel discussion about the prison system with the artist, professors and researchers at 5 p.m. on April 21 in the Pearn Auditorium, Brennan Hall. The gallery reception will follow from 6 to 8 p.m. at the gallery in Hyland Hall.
Moderator Michael Jenkins is the professor and chair of the university's Department of Criminal Justice, Cybersecurity and Sociology as well as the executive director of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Crime. Jenkins will speak with the following panelists:
- Mark Loughney, exhibiting artist, Philadelphia
- Sean Kelley, senior vice president and director of Interpretation at the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Philadelphia
- Jasmine Heiss, project director of In Our Backyards, Vera Institute of Justice, Brooklyn, New York
- Jack Norton, assistant professor of criminal justice at Governors State University, University Park, Illinois
- Glynis Johns, Founder and CEO of the Black Scranton Project.
Both the panel discussion and gallery reception are open to the public and free of charge. Loughney's work can be also be viewed after the opening reception during Hope Horn Gallery hours: Wednesdays from 6 to 8 p.m. and Sunday through Friday noon to 4 p.m.
For more details, contact Gallery Director Dr. Darlene Miller-Lanning at 570-941-4214 or darlene.miller-lanning@scranton.edu.