Still Becoming: Art, Justice, and the American Story

Our yearlong, community-based project

At the heart of 2026 is Still Becoming, a powerful exploration of freedom, memory, and belonging through creative expression. The project engages justice-involved individuals, artists, and community members to reflect on the American story—whose voices are heard, whose are missing, and how art helps us imagine more just futures.

°

In celebration of Unison Arts’ 50th anniversary and the 250th anniversary of the United States, we are launching Still Becoming: Art, Justice, and the American Story—a yearlong community-based project that engages justice-involved individuals in a powerful exploration of freedom through creative expression. In partnership with community-based agencies and the Sheriff’s IGNITE initiative, this project will culminate in a series of public art installations and community exhibition on Unison’s historic grounds.

At a time when the meaning of freedom continues to evolve and be contested, this initiative creates space for those most directly impacted by the justice system to explore their own definitions of freedom—its absence, its promise, and its potential for renewal. Participants, including individuals who are currently incarcerated or under probation, will engage in weekly workshops with professional teaching artists, exploring themes of identity, justice, transformation, and civic belonging through visual storytelling, experimental arts, and collaborative design.

This project invites our community to reflect on American values—especially freedom—not as a fixed ideal, but as a living, ongoing process shaped by all of us. It is a tribute to the power of art to transform pain into beauty, isolation into connection, and silence into public dialogue.