Bayview Series: Transformative Power Of Art

Katie Yamasaki, a muralist in New York City, uses her artistic talents to teach others how to transcend their temporary realities and hardships through art. Inside the gymnasium of Bayview Correctional Facility, a former women’s prison in Manhattan, Katie Yamasaki discusses the transformative power of art. Yamasaki works closely with incarcerated mothers and their children to create murals and use art as a therapeutic medium of expression.

“I conducted a series of workshops with mothers and children related to [the] theme of transformation to get them to tell their story,” Yamasaki says.

Katie Yamasaki at the Women & Justice Project’s healing and transformation ceremony for formerly incarcerated women

“I worked with the Women & Justice Project and another organization called Our Children, which is a group that works with formerly incarcerated women as they leave prison and rebuild their lives, reunite with their families. The mural is a collaboration with about twenty women and twelve to fourteen children telling their story through the form of muralism.”

Art is not only a medium for storytelling and personal expression. According to Yamasaki it can also help a person transcend their current reality into a higher state of being. “When I’ve worked with populations of women who are incarcerated, what you really feel is the therapeutic benefit of art. As they’re kind of working through a drawing or a painting, and just having the physical experience of being with the material, and creating something where there wasn’t anything before, you see people’s spirits open up in a certain way.

I’ve heard people say things like, ‘for the last hour I forgot that I was in prison.'”

You can view Part 1 of the Bayview series here and Part 2 of the Bayview Series here.

About the author

Amber C. Snider

Home & Design Editor

Amber was born in Washington, D.C. and relocated to NYC in 2007. She received an M.A. degree in Liberal Studies: Women's Studies, Gender, and Sexuality from CUNY's Graduate Center and University, and an honors B.A. in English from The City College of New York. Before coming to Culture Trip, she was the executive editor for Metropolitan Magazine, a boutique luxury lifestyle and arts publication, as well as the editor for ResidencyNY Magazine. In 2015, she also started her own company, ACS Media Services, and has over 8+ years experience as a writer/editor in the NYC area. As one of the original employees in Culture Trip’s New York City office, Amber focuses on three verticals: Design, Architecture, and Home and Interiors, exploring how creativity and design influences our contemporary social landscape. She lives in Brooklyn with her typewriter.