Eac Gallery Night: Who We Have Become + Mid-day Dance Break

Join Erie Arts & Culture for September Gallery Night, featuring Who We Have Become, an exhibition from the permanent art collection of Let’s Get Free, alongside a special culminating exhibition from Kinetic Creativity: Enabling Dance For All’s Mid-Day Dance Break.

Who We Have Become

Who We Have Become features artwork created by people in prison alongside artists on the outside who stand in solidarity with ending mass incarceration. Through drawings, paintings, prints, cross-stitch, banners, poetry, and more, the works share personal stories, reflect on conditions of confinement, offer social critique, and imagine possibilities for the future.

The collection has been built through more than a decade of collaboration between Pittsburgh-based Let’s Get Free and artists in prison, including work from its annual art exhibitions and a significant collection from the 2020 End Death By Incarceration exhibition.

Who We Have Become invites us to look closely, listen to voices and experiences too often unseen, and consider the people, systems, experiences, and choices that shape who we are—and who we have the possibility to become.

This exhibit is available on Floor C2 of the Cashier's House.

Mid-Day Dance Break: Empowerment in Motion

Also featured during Gallery Night is the culmination of Mid-Day Dance Break, an interactive summer art and dance series presented through a partnership between Kinetic Creativity: Enabling Dance For All and the Crime Victim Center of Erie County, hosted by Dafmark Dance Theater and sponsored by the City of Erie.

Throughout its 13th season, Mid-Day Dance Break brought movement, creativity, and plenty of fun to downtown Erie with one central theme: empowerment. Each week, dancers shared their unique styles through live performances and interactive workshops while a visual artist created work inspired by the movement unfolding around them.

Gallery Night brings those works together for a special exhibition on the ground floor in the lobby featuring visual artists Anthony Carson, Nicholas Gore, Rugile Morelli, Mathew Skelly, and Nhu Tran. Artwork will be available for purchase, with 50% of each sale benefiting the Crime Victim Center and 50% going directly to the artist.

Mid-Day Dance Break featured performances from Jennifer Dennehy & friends with hoop dance, Sophia Kopasi & Carrie Snow with Soul Flow, Kennedy & Preach with West African dancing and drumming, and Shreelina Ghosh with classical Indian dance.

Experience an evening filled with powerful stories, movement, creativity, and art that connects us to one another.

Free and open to the public. No registration required.