2017
Broadway & Lead
320 Broadway SE, EDo

Emanuel Martinez is a nationally renowned artist, sculptor and muralist whose work is on permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. His life story inspired the start of the Emanuel Project which is now being implemented in dozens of juvenile detention facilities throughout the nation.

Through a powerful mural process, Emanuel helps students cope with the negative stigma associated with incarcerated youth. He designs colorful, large scale murals with positive messages about education, goals and career choices and helps youth realize, through education, they can achieve their dreams and turn their lives around.

Emanuel Project
At the Emanuel Project we believe that art can help incarcerated youth turn their lives around and give them hope for living a productive life. Our focus is to provide a research based, high impact program, that provides teaching methods better suited for incarcerated youth – making teachers’ jobs easier while getting much better results in the classroom – both academically and behaviorally. The Emanuel Project integrates creative learning into the curriculum, trains teachers on the use of the materials and provides incentive programs like the mural project. We invite you to read about the art curriculum, art therapy and research initiatives offered, as well as the compelling mural program available for juvenile detention facilities throughout the nation.

The Emanuel Project is a visual arts program for at risk youth with current concentration on incarcerated youth. The project was initiated in response to the need to engage incarcerated youth between the ages of 12-21 in their curriculum, and to decrease behavioral incidents while increasing their self-esteem. The Emanuel Project takes a multi-dimensional approach to reaching incarcerated youth, through research based curriculum and instruction, incentive programs, art therapy and vocational programs. By utilizing the tools in each of these areas, students, instructors and facilities as a whole are benefited.

'The Emanuel Project helps reshape the future of marginalized youth by discouraging the negative stigma that they carry and replacing it with positive visual imagery of hope that generates their spirit to better themselves.'