By Michelle Kim

Driving past the New Hampshire State Prison for Women on Route 114, it can be remarkably easy to look past the institution despite its highly visible location. For many area residents, the lives of the women inside remain a mystery, shrouded behind barbed wire, and the issues they face can seem unrelatable to an average citizen’s life.

Elaine Rizzo would like to challenge that perception.

Rizzo, a professor of criminal justice at Saint Anselm College and co-chairman of the Consortium of Justice and Society at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, has long had a passionate interest in issues of incarceration, particularly incarcerated women.

“If you took on prison as a social issue, you’d be taking on every other social issue,” she said, including poverty, substance abuse, homelessness, mental health, children and families. “They are our thermometer. They are our litmus test of how well we are doing in creating a healthy society and healthy citizenry.”

So when she heard about an art exhibition addressing the experiences of incarcerated mothers, she jumped at the chance to bring it the Saint Anselm campus.

“Interrupted Life: Incarcerated Mothers in the United States” is a mixed-media collection of eight installations opening at the Chapel Art Center from Jan. 24 to Feb. 21 and kicking off with an opening reception Thursday, Jan. 24, from 6 to 8 p.m.

The traveling exhibition, funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, features pieces created by both established artists and incarcerated mothers, including a centerpiece with an arrangement of cards from women inmates across the country reflecting on motherhood.

It came about when curator and historian Rickie Solinger realized she needed to address the rapidly growing number of mothers behind bars, particularly the poor and women of color, as part of her work examining the question of who gets to be considered a legitimate mother.

Nationally, the increase of incarcerated women has grown at nearly double the rate of incarcerated men since 1980, partly in connection with the changes in drug laws.

Solinger’s previous experience with exhibitions on other topics, such as “Wake Up Little Susie: Pregnancy and Power before Roe v. Wade,” showed Solinger the usefulness of an exhibition that could “interrupt the curriculum” by stimulating other events and courses rather than just sitting quietly in a gallery, she said.

“It’s a gentle way of introducing people to the responsibility we have to think about this matter,” she said.

To this end, the exhibition gave Rizzo a chance to assemble a broad ranging series of speakers and panels to run at the same time, entitled “The Incarceration Epidemic: Justice for Whom?”

In addition to challenging the public to think about broader questions of what constitutes a just society, the series, which features three guest lectures and six panels, examines incarceration from sociological, medical, theological, practical and arts perspectives.

Some of the topics include “Incarcerated Families and Communities,” “Women Who Work in Corrections,” and “Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America.”

Also displayed alongside the exhibition are works from inmates at the Women’s Prison who took an art class taught by Betsy Holmes, a New Boston resident and Saint Anselm librarian and adjunct art instructor, and were inspired by an article of Solinger’s. Holmes said she was struck by the courage the women had in exposing their lives through their art.

“So often as an artist, you worry about what others are going to think,” she said. “These women were unbelievably courageous at putting down hard things.”

At the same time, Holmes said she was also surprised at how much working with them was like working with any other women.

Rizzo said the women inmates often don’t fit the stereotypical expectations people might have.

“When (volunteers) meet these women, they’re shocked that they’re not monsters. They’re struck by their craving for knowledge and contact,” said Rizzo.

“I have yet to see anyone brought in a volunteer capacity and not get hooked,” she said.

For more information, call 641-7034 for the speaker series and 641-7470 for the exhibition. Or go online to www.anselm.edu/chapelart/interruptedlife.htm