Photos of horses taken by women from Maine Correctional Center at the Maine State Society for the Protection for Animals farm are on display at the Francis Hotel. Sophie Burchell / The Forecaster

The Francis Hotel is bursting with art, from paintings hanging in its winding hallways and elegant living room down to its little nooks and crannies. While it is typical for the boutique hotel on Congress Street to have rotating art shows, these works are created by residents in a facility quite the opposite of the Francis’ refurbished Victorian mansion. The art comes from those currently incarcerated in Maine, created primarily at Maine Correctional Center in Windham.

Flowing up the stairs are intimate photographs of horses, while another staircase is filled with photos of bright flowers and birds on barbed fences. On the fireplace mantel rest playful pottery figurines, while the walls are covered in paintings of memories in nature, beloved animals and abstract depictions of internal struggles. On the second floor, lithograph prints made in collaboration with Maine College of Art and Design students are on display.

An incarcerated artist identified by the initials “K.C.” has paintings exhibited throughout the Francis Hotel. One dark blue scene depicts a parent and child looking at the moon over the water and is titled “Sebec Memory.”

K.C.’s artist statement reads: “I have been incarcerated my entire life on and off. Not one time in all those years did I think that I would do good in society upon release. I was right; it never took me long to go straight back to prison.”

The statement continues: “This time, about 18 months ago I decided to pick up a brush. … I went from no hope, to no doubt. I can make it this time. I am 39 years old and for the first time in my life I have hope. And art has given that to me.”

Pottery by artists incarcerated in Maine Correctional Center in front of one of the series “Six Native Paintings” by an artist identified as “J.M.” Many of the pottery pieces are for sale at the Francis Hotel. Sophie Burchell / The Forecaster

The Creating in Confinement exhibit at the Francis Hotel was organized by MECAD’s Public Engagement Program in collaboration with the Maine Correctional Center and the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition.

MECAD Professor and Program Chair of Printmaking Adriene Herman spearheaded the exhibit. In addition to running MECAD’s Public Engagement Program and connecting students to those incarcerated for artistic collaboration, Herman volunteers at Maine Correctional Center and teaches various artistic practices to residents.

“Their enthusiasm reignites my own enthusiasm,” said Herman of the Maine Correctional Center residents.

“There’s a lot of beauty and wisdom and love that the folks who find themselves incarcerated have to share,” she said.

The Francis Hotel regularly hosts art shows and is expanding into more socially focused programing. As Operations Manager Rachael Graber was looking for more work to display at Francis Hotel, she was connected to Herman.

“We want it to be community oriented. We want it to be locally focused. We want it to draw attention. We want it to have more impactful meanings,” said Graber.

Much of the art itself was created in men’s and women’s art rooms at Maine Correctional Center. Erika Grover is the education coordinator for the women’s side of Maine Correctional Center and the neighboring Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center and created the women’s art room two years ago. While she primarily focuses on coordinating high school equivalency tests and college enrollment, she strives to bring more opportunities to engage in art and self exploration to women inside the facilities.

“You literally lose your identity when you go to prison. You are assigned a number. This is not how you are treated, necessarily, but this is what happens. You’re assigned a number, you’re assigned a uniform that looks like everybody else’s, you’re told when to eat, when to shower, when to take recreation, when to make phone calls, how to make your bed. You just don’t have an identity,” said Grover.

“Art and corrections are like night and day. The whole point of art is to explore identity and emotion and feeling and explore things like, ‘I didn’t know that about myself,’” she said.

As an amateur photographer herself, Grover wanted to start a photography program at Maine Correctional Center. After overcoming the security challenges of providing cameras to prison residents, she led a group of women on a 12-week photography course that eventually became 12 months of instruction together.

Unlike most new photographers who can focus the lens wherever they please, inside the corrections center the women were challenged with limited ways to fill the frame.

“As a resident inside of prison, you can only go in so many areas and so many times,” said Grover. “How do you look at life differently than you would normally? That’s part of becoming a photographer, becoming an artist, is to look at things differently.”

The photography course culminated with the final four students taking a trip across the road to the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals, where the students – unshackled – snapped photos of the horses and pasture.

“From the start of the class, I remember people were fumbling with cameras like you would expect any new person who’s never touched a digital camera to do, and being frustrated,” said Grover. “And it went from that to this level of pride. The images they got from the horse farm for just, like, a few hours … they’re amazing.”

The resulting collection of horse photographs now ascend the first staircase of the Francis Hotel, installed by MECAD students and Herman. They are for sale for $50 per print.

Paintings titled “Education, Socialism, Freedom, Reform” by an incarcerated artists identified as “C.B.” Sophie Burchell / The Forecaster

Since September, the Francis Hotel has hosted First Friday Art Walk events, with the final event on Friday, Nov. 1. The exhibit will be on display through the end of November, free to the public.

Graber said patrons of the Francis Hotel have been admiring and inquiring about the art since Herman and MECAD students installed it in September. Guests have also been purchasing works that are for sale. Often, they pay more than the asking price, said Graber.

“Our guests really love it,” said Graber. “I’m getting a lot of great feedback, a lot of people wanting or donating more money to the programs.”

The Francis Hotel facilitates the art purchase, and all the money goes to the artist. Unlike their usual art shows, the Francis Hotel does not take commission on these pieces.

“This was definitely community focused, and we wanted to really give back as much as we could to the people that made the art,” said Graber.

While having their work shown outside the Maine Correctional Center’s walls is meaningful to the artists inside, Herman emphasized the role of the viewer in this process of connecting incarcerated artists with the outside world.

“For people living outside institutional custody, it’s a privilege to see their work. It’s also our role as witness. To see an artist’s work, one does that work, that witnessing. We all want to be seen,” said Herman.

“I hope that viewers of the show have a sense of that, the idea, the inspiration and the gifts that are being transmitted through the artwork,” she said.