CⓞL𝓊MBIΔ
C๏𝕝𝕝EC𝔱IV𝔼
Order a copy of FRAUGHT IMAGINARIES
our new ANTI-CARCERAL COLORING BOOK today!
Limited edition of 125
ORDER HERE
our new ANTI-CARCERAL COLORING BOOK today!
Limited edition of 125
ORDER HERE
ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE
The Columbia Collective is a collective of emerging female and trans artists with experiences of incarceration. Founded in 2019 at the Columbia Secure Center for Girls, a maximum-security juvenile facility in New York's Hudson Valley, the collective emerged through collaborative artistic practice that challenged the institutional boundaries governing access, expression, and creative autonomy. Although the facility has since closed, the collective continues, committed to examining the conditions of confinement and imagining possibilities beyond them.
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ARTIST PORTFOLIOS
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PAST EXHIBTIONS/EVENTS
SHE/ROSE
by M.A. Donato
Special thanks to Border Patrol, CA for printing and distributing the book and for hosting our panel discussion.
Sands >< 𝔅𝔢𝔶𝔬𝔫𝔡/𝔗𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥/𝔅𝔢𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔢 >< Time@ MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation
in collaboration with Girls Inc. of Greater Santa Barbara
July - January, 2024
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PRESS RELEASE & FREE COLORING BOOK PAGES
︎︎︎DOWNLOAD
2024 SHE/ROSE by Marilynn Donato @ Border Patrol
2024 Beyond the Margins @ Siena College
2023 Shandanken Projects Billboard Exhibition
2021 Talking Back Exhibition @ Foreland
Since the formation of the Columbia Collective, the group has exhibited and collaborated with Pioneer Works, Red Hook, NY; Moxi, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation, Santa Barbara, CA; Siena College, NY; Boarder Patrol, Bakersfield, CA; Shandaken Projects, NY; The Athens Cultural Center, Catskill, NY; and Girls Inc., Santa Barbara, CA.
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The Columbia Collective is a group of emerging female/trans incarcerated/formerly incarcerated artists exercising creative freedom across states of confinement, named for the maximum juvenile secure center in which they lived and worked. The group is currently comprised of six artists; Marshmallow, Jay, Juste-A, Marilynn, Torei and Toni, and was founded in 2020 by artist Maggie Hazen, which she co-directs with her curatorial partner, Sofia Thieu D’Amico.
From 2019 to 2021, the group met weekly for arts instruction based on a graduate-school MFA model, in which artists cultivate their own visions and projects, outside of an established curriculum with grades and assignments. For the past five years, Hazen has cultivated artist communities in other NY state prison facilities, actively working with abolition-minded community partners to connect the Collective to resources and transitional support post-incarceration through fundraising, storytelling, and mentorship.
Since the formation of the Columbia Collective, the group has exhibited and collaborated with Pioneer Works, Red Hook, NY; the Moxi Children’s Museum, Santa Barbara, CA; Siena College, NY; Boarder Patrol, Bakersfield, CA; Shandaken Projects, NY; The Athens Cultural Center, Catskill, NY; and Girls Inc., Santa Barbara, CA.
JUVENILE JUSTICE ARTS & MEDIA NETWORK INC. 501c3
From 2019 to 2021, the group met weekly for arts instruction based on a graduate-school MFA model, in which artists cultivate their own visions and projects, outside of an established curriculum with grades and assignments. For the past five years, Hazen has cultivated artist communities in other NY state prison facilities, actively working with abolition-minded community partners to connect the Collective to resources and transitional support post-incarceration through fundraising, storytelling, and mentorship.
Since the formation of the Columbia Collective, the group has exhibited and collaborated with Pioneer Works, Red Hook, NY; the Moxi Children’s Museum, Santa Barbara, CA; Siena College, NY; Boarder Patrol, Bakersfield, CA; Shandaken Projects, NY; The Athens Cultural Center, Catskill, NY; and Girls Inc., Santa Barbara, CA.
JUVENILE JUSTICE ARTS & MEDIA NETWORK INC. 501c3
JUSTE-A
Juste-A was born and raised in Bronx, Ny for 16 years then moved to Oneonta, NY. Growing up Juste-A thought life was going to be rainbows and unicorns, but then it wasn’t. Now Juste-A has been through a lot and can now see what reality is and is learning who she is and trying to find her voice. Being in jail is not giving Juste-A an opportunity to find herself. She has no one to confide in so she writes.
JAY
Jay is 16 years old as he writes this, and he used to live in Syracuse. Now, he lives at Brookwood Secure, whatever that’s suppose to be. Because even though he lived there, it’s not his home. He doesn’t have one. He’s been through some struggles, everyone has at some point, and he expesses how he feels about those struggles by pouring it out onto paper. Take a look at his art, and maybe you’ll feel something too.
MARILYNN
I am 18 years old. I was first placed into the system at the age of 13 and remianed there for about three years. I’ve been to a lot of different juvenile detention facilities. The system has taught me so much but so little at the same time. I enjoy drawing, painting, and reading which got me through most of my many rainy days. I aspire to help those who once were in similiar positions as me. 
