Imaginal Cell Finds a New Home at CSU Law
On October 8, CSU Law held a ribbon cutting for Imaginal Cell, a sculpture by exoneree and artist Dean Gillispie that is now permanently installed with the Terry Gilbert Wrongful Conviction Clinic. The piece previously stood in the Garden of Hope in Chagrin Falls and was relocated after Chagrin Arts closed earlier this year.
The sculpture carries forty-four butterflies, each engraved with the name of an exonerated Ohioan and the number of years that person spent in prison for a crime they did not commit. New names will be added each fall as more Ohioans are exonerated, making the piece a living record rather than a static memorial.
Gillispie knows that story firsthand. He spent twenty years in prison, from 1991 to 2011, before the Ohio Innocence Project helped secure his exoneration in 2017. He made art throughout his incarceration, and his work has since been shown at the Museum of Modern Art. Today he serves on the Ohio Innocence Project’s Board of Advisors.
The installation also launches a partnership between the Clinic and Arts for Justice Cleveland, a new organization founded by Karen Prasser, former Executive Director of Chagrin Arts. Together they will bring artists, advocates, legal professionals, and the community together through exhibitions, facilitated conversations, and music aimed at confronting wrongful convictions in Ohio.
Next up: Arts for Justice Cleveland opens Art with Purpose, paintings by exoneree Raymond Towler, on November 12 at the MidTown Collaboration Center, 6539 Euclid Avenue. Towler spent more than 29 years behind bars and has his own butterfly on Imaginal Cell.
Read the full article by Erin Hollenbank, published on the CAN Journal.