WHAT'S NEW?
Open Sky featured in the Winter 2025 issue of 603 Diversity
“Open Sky’s work “underscores the power of art to teach us about ourselves, to create genuine empathy for others, reveal our common humanity, and makes a powerful case for including it in rehabilitation, education and, really, every facet of our lives.”
- Ernesto Burden, Editor
Open Sky has been certified as a Promising Practice by JSI, a global nonprofit dedicated to improving lives through better health, education, and socioeconomic opportunity for individuals and communities. |
Open Sky offers incarcerated individuals the opportunity to exercise and cultivate individual faculties and facilities of communication, sensitivity, responsibility and effective, disciplined collaboration that will enable participants to actively choose a more pro-social narrative for themselves and develop the skills they need to re-enter society including:
Conceived and created by actor Derek Lucci, Open Sky was launched in 2019 at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord, NH working with a core group of actors and a design, tech and build team. While the COVID pandemic necessitated a hiatus of the program, Open Sky returned to class late in 2021 and, in 2022, offered their first public presentation, Sam Shephard's True West, which was seen by 650 incarcerated individuals and an invited audience of supporters and stakeholders.
Despite having launched our pilot programming just before the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, prison staff and participants in the program report experiencing clear, direct gains in important outcome areas including daily well-being and visibly improved demeanor. Open Sky has attracted interest, guidance and support from the NH Dept of Corrections, Dartmouth Health, Geisel School of Medicine, The NH Charitable Foundation, NH Humanities and NH State Council on the Arts.
Open Sky, Inc. is a 501(c)3 registered in the state of New Hampshire. |
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