We meet Los Angeles based artist Mark Bradford—known for connecting art with the real world—when he represents the United States in the 57th Venice Art Biennale. While preparing for Tomorrow is Another Day, an exhibition of his signature layered abstractions, he launched a small business venture with members of the island city’s hidden prison culture.

His six-year collaboration with Venice social cooperative nonprofit Rio Terà dei Pensieri offers employment opportunities to men and women incarcerated in Venice. Prisoners create artisanal goods and other products to support their re-integration into society. Titled Process Collettivo, Bradford’s relationship with this marginalized community raises awareness of the penal system and introduces a new business model. The project reveals the artist’s strength as a culture maker; he acts on his belief that contemporary artists have the power to reinvent our world.

Collaboratively presented in Venice by The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University and The Baltimore Museum of Art, Tomorrow Is Another Day comes to the United States in September 2018, with an exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art and a project in which Bradford engages with the city’s Greenmount West Community Center.

Sound Editing: Jonathan Pfeffer | Photos courtesy U.S. Pavilion in Venice 2017, Baltimore Museum of Art and Fresh Art International

Related Episodes: Sounds of the 57th Venice Art Biennale Revisited, Monument to Decay: Israeli Pavilion in Venice, Samson Young on Songs for Disaster Relief, Lisa Reihana on Reversing the Gaze, Sounds of Venice Art Biennale

Related Links: Mark Bradford: Venice 2017, Baltimore Museum of Art, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University