A Prisons Gallery of Art will open later this year in Washington, DC, but if you're anxious to see what it will offer, you can check out a sneak preview now in progress. The preview collection of more than 100 pieces, ranging from sculpture to portraiture to crafts made by prison inmates across America, is on display in downtown Washington, DC at a location near the Capitol and Union Station.

The sneak preview is being sponsored by the Prisons Foundation, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

The Prisons Foundation is a nonprofit organization that promotes the arts and education in prison and alternatives to incarceration. It has held prison arts and crafts shows in New England, Arizona and Washington, DC with the goal of showing the human face of people behind bars and sharing their talents.

The Washington shows have been featured on Channel 8 News, Maryland Public Television (ArtWorks This Week), and The Washington Post.

Proceeds from sales of the art are divided equally between the artists and the Prisons Foundation. Prison artists may donate their share to a charity of their choosing, to family members, or to a victim's fund.

Artists whose works are on exhibit include Lynda Baker, Julio Navarro, Roger Helm, and Vairley Dunlap.

Lynda Baker, currently imprisoned in Michigan, describes herself as an "African American woman who is self taught and blessed" with a relentless drive to create art. Her drawings include colored-pencil works that convey religious and social messages. She is characterized by Washington, DC artist James Harbison as "A naive artist. So earnest it hurts. Her wonderful drawing of pop icon Prince captures his emotional quality if not the physical detail."

Julio Navarro's ship model called The Pirate of Portobellow is nearly three feet high. It has 17 sails, open hatchways, and retractable canons. A miniature of a 17th-century ship crafted behind bars, it took Navarro 19 months to complete. Navarro, imprisoned in Florida, was formerly a fisherman who worked in a ship yard. While creating the Portobello, he explains, "I was no longer here in prison. I was back home doing what I love -- building beautiful ships."

Roger Helm is a prison sculptor who works in soap, wax, and, most recently, bread, coffee and glue. His poly-urethane-coated dragon consists of 156 bread-based pieces created over a period of two years in a prison in New Jersey. Assembled, it turns into a unique skeletal creature. "I [made] it up in my head as I worked," he explains. Helms describes his background this way: "I was adopted into an abusive family. At the age of 14, I was arrested and charged as an adult for their murders and sentenced to 88 years."

Vairley Dunlap creates finely detailed drawings of plants. Incarcerated in Michigan for sixteen years, this mother of six says her drawings show "there is beauty even in things that can cause pain" and "lessons in adverse situations."

Omar Bandar, Arts Director of the Prisons Foundation and himself a former prison artist, said this about the preview gallery: "There's no other opportunity to see this high a concentration of prison art in one location in the DC area if not the entire country." Adds Prisons Foundation President Helen Thorne, "We're proud to present it in a dignified way and look forward to the day our Prisons Gallery can grow and branch out to other cities and countries."

Located one block from Union Station metro in Washington, DC, the Prisons Gallery of Art preview collection may be visited weekdays, evenings or weekends. For further information and an appointment to visit the preview gallery, call 202-393-1511.