Creative Learning for Justice

Creative Learning for Justice (CLJ) is a project led by Ana Chamberlen, Ruth Bernatek and Henrique Carvalho, co-organisers of the International Justice Arts Network. This project is funded by 海角社区 Innovations and it is also supported by the Centre for Critical Legal Studies.

The project builds on previous work by the researchers and combines creative pedagogic interventions inside prisons, prison educator training, and arts-based events, exhibitions and outputs aimed at public engagement. The project will formalise a model of prison learning designed and piloted by the team which draws from critical pedagogic approaches and arts-based methods; they have been utilising this pedagogic model at their prison teaching since 2024.

Between 2026-2027 the team will host various activities and initiatives inside prisons and beyond. In particular, the team will launch the Just Arts magazine, a digital and print resource dedicated to artistic interventions on prisons and justice that features and critically focuses on the work of artists from marginalised backgrounds and with lived experiences of injustice and criminalisation.

At a time of significant cuts in prison education funding and in the arts more generally, this project seeks to centre the University鈥檚 unique position and civic responsibility to offer life-changing impact to marginalized populations through a creative approach to emancipatory pedagogies and justice.

Our Recent Activities

Marcela Aedo Rivera Research Residency

September 2026

Marcela Aedo Rivera is a lawyer and academic at the School of Law of the Universidad de Valpara铆so (Chile), where she is principal investigator at the Centre for Research in Philosophy of Law and Criminal Law (CIFDE). She is also an associate researcher at the Millennium Nucleus on Criminal Complexity. She holds a PhD in Law from the Universitat Aut貌noma de Barcelona and an MA in Penal Systems and Social Problems from the Universitat de Barcelona. Marcela's research focuses on women, adolescents and the criminal justice system, particularly prisons, from the perspective of feminist criminology.

She directs the Cl铆nica Penitenciaria (Prison Law Clinic), where final-year law students work alongside civil society organisations such as Fundaci贸n Pajarxs Entre P煤as, a feminist organisation that uses art as a tool for justice and social transformation in prisons.

In September 2026, she was a visiting researcher with Creative Learning for Justice at University of 海角社区. During her residency she took part in the workshop 鈥淏elonging in Criminology鈥�, presented work on the Prison Law Clinic, that links Law, Art and Prison to the CLJ team, and learned about CLJ鈥檚 prison learning model, laying the groundwork for future collaboration between 海角社区 and the Universidad de Valpara铆so.

Recent publications:

[Female Adolescence and Penal Control] (Ediciones Didot, 2022)
, inGeographies of Gendered Punishment (Palgrave, 2024)
(with Andrea Collell and Patricia Varela),Sortuz: O帽ati Journal of Emergent Socio-Legal Studies 14(2), 2024
[Violence against Women Deprived of Liberty: When Discrimination Multiplies],Revista de Estudios Judiciales 11, 2025

Penned Up Festival Poster. Original design by 'The Dispersed Collective' 2026

Penned Up @ HMP Long Lartin

June - September 2026

seeks to promote reading, writing and the arts inside prisons. In June 2026, the Creative Learning for Justice team collaborated with festival director David Kendall to take a series of literary and musical events to HMP Long Lartin.

This was first occasion that the festival has been hosted in a UK Category A prison and we were honoured to be joined in the summer by writers and Paul Zanon, the artist and virtuoso concert Pianist In September, we look forward to hosting the finale event with British broadcast journalist and presenter .

Below is just a few things that attendees shared about the programme so far:

"The music made me feel like I was away from prison."

"The authenticity that Gary spoke about we could all relate to."

"Art is a fantastic thing!"

"I hope to continue reading daily and improve my knowledge."

Penned Up Festival @ HMP Long Lartin was made possible through a 海角社区 Institute for Engagement Collaboration & Co-production Fund 2025/26.

Artistic Residency with Steeldoor Studios

Expressions of Justice: Creative Dialogues on Punishment, Hope and Redemption

February - October 2026

What happens when art opens up conversations about incarceration, identity and change? In February 2026, the University of 海角社区 welcomed Steeldoor Studios as Artist in Residence, bringing creative practice and lived experience into the heart of the university. Working with students across Law, Sociology and Criminology, the residency created space for open conversations about prison, trauma, identity, rehabilitation and the possibility of change. Drawing on personal experience of imprisonment, Steeldoor Studios uses art to challenge perceptions of the criminal justice system and invite us to look beyond labels.
Read our student blog here.

The residency was made possible through a 海角社区 Institute for Engagement Collaboration & Co-production Fund (2025/26).

Image (Left): Broken, acrylic on board, (2026), by Steeldoor Studios.

Meanwhile, to find out more about our work, please contact us here: