Larchmont Village Resident Launches Book on Prison Arts Program Impact
Annie Buckley, a resident of Larchmont Village, has published a new book titled 'Changemakers’ Guide to Prison Arts Programming,' which details her experience in founding and developing a program to bring arts to prisons. The book, published by Routledge, serves as a step-by-step guide for creating comprehensive arts programming within correctional facilities. Buckley's initiative, the Prison Arts Collective, has reached over 10,000 incarcerated individuals across 17 California state prisons since its inception in 2013. The program began with art classes at the California Institution for Men in Chino, California, and is based on the belief that art is a human right that empowers the incarcerated to express themselves creatively, build community, and share knowledge. Buckley was inspired to start this program partly due to her mother's volunteer work in juvenile detention centers in Los Angeles. 
