Throughout the month of February, the Visionairi Foundation in conjunction with several University of Arkansas partners will host incARceraTed: Art Transforming Lives. incARceraTed is a series of events focused on the arts, criminal justice and life transformation. The program will engage the Northwest Arkansas community on stringent issues of criminal justice and capital punishment reform, entrepreneurship and hope. 

Special guest artist, Kenneth Reams, will provide keynote remarks at the first event, a kickoff of Black History Month by the University of Arkansas Black Students Association, Students of Retailing Excellence, Black Graduate Students' Association, and the National Association of Black Accountants. Reams will speak at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4, in Arkansas Union room 507-508. In 1993, Reams, a native of Pine Bluff, became the youngest person sentenced to execution in Arkansas history at the age of 18. Using art, Kenneth literally fights to save his life while creating a new future. His work has received numerous accolades, and Reams conducts art exhibits and speaking engagements at institutions and in communities around the world.

Other incARceraTed events include a screening of the documentary film on Reams' art and incarceration, Free Men, on Friday, Feb. 15, at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, and an Art Showcase/Panel Discussion on Tuesday, Feb. 26, at the Donald W. Reynolds Conference Center.

All events are free and open to the public. Special thanks to the Sam M. Walton College's Office of Diversity and Inclusion, the Black Alumni Society, the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Black Graduate Students' Association, African and African American Studies Program, and the Office for Diversity and Inclusion for overwhelming support of this very unique opportunity to demonstrate the power of art to bring awareness and redress to systemic injustices, and the life transformation that becomes possible. 

For more information contact Synetra Hughes at shughes@walton.uark.edu.