Artist Conversation: with Timothy Curtis, Chief Curator Claire Gilman, and Community Leader Dawan Williams

Listen to Chief Curator Claire Gilman, artist Timothy Curtis, and Dawan Williams, Program Coordinator for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Restorative Justice Guild program, discuss art making in the context of the modern US prison system.

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Timothy Curtis

Timothy Curtis (b. 1982) is a self-taught artist from Philadelphia, who lives and works in New York City. Since establishing a focused studio practice in 2015, Curtis realized his first solo exhibition in November 2017 at Kaikai Kiki’s Hidari Zingaro gallery in Tokyo, Japan, curated by Takashi Murakami. His work was debuted publicly in the U.S. at the Brooklyn Museum as part of the group exhibition Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull) by the artist Stephen Powers (2015-1016). In 2018, Curtis’ work was included in Beyond the Streets, curated by Roger Gastman, a follow-up to Los Angeles MoCA's successful Art in the Streets exhibition. Curtis has also led a prison-wide mural program, creating large-scale projects throughout the prison campus, and leading a team of inmates, many of whom were serving life sentences and now practicing art for the first time.
Claire Gilman
Dawan Williams

Dawan Williams is a Philadelphia-based community leader; he is Restorative Justice Program Manager for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and the Program Director for NOMO (New Opportunities More Options) Foundation and PA FACT (Pennsylvania Fathers and Children Together). In these roles Williams works closely with at-risk youth in high-risk probation circumstances, while NOMO and FACT focus on early intervention and reconnection between incarcerated parents and their children. Williams is a trained life skills professional, and serves the formerly-incarcerated on a day to day basis to help them successfully re-enter society while on parole and probation. He is involved with several non-profit organizations geared towards uniting families, strengthening communities, and restoring justice across the nation. In 2016, Williams was invited to perform a Ted Talk on the theme of Stronger Families, Better Futures discussing the impact of incarceration on children and families.