Some of the most detailed artwork now on display at the Brookline Village Library wasn't made by professional artists — it was made by incarcerated people, using nothing more than ballpoint pens and pencils, as a way of saying thank you for a free book.
"Art from Inside," curated by Jessica Steytler, head of reference at the Public Library of Brookline, fills Hunneman Hall with drawings and illustrations sent by readers of the Prison Book Program over the years. Many pieces are explicitly book-themed — some depict reading as an escape, others as a path toward rehabilitation and growth.
"Art from Inside shows how much talent, creativity and human potential resides behind bars," Steytler wrote in the library's exhibit announcement.
The Prison Book Program traces back to 1972, when volunteers at the Red Book Store in Cambridge began mailing books to people in prison. Today, led by Executive Director Kelly Brotzman, the Quincy-based nonprofit sent nearly 65,000 books to more than 18,500 incarcerated people across more than 1,000 facilities in 2025 alone — at an average cost of just $6.18 to mail a three-pound package.
Without internet access, and often with poor prison library collections, books take on outsized importance for incarcerated readers. "People are looking to learn. They're looking to improve themselves," Brotzman said in an earlier interview. Brookline Booksmith has partnered with the program for about five years, donating advance reader copies that can't be sold in stores — a small, steady stream of books that eventually, it turns out, comes back around as art.
The exhibit is on view in Hunneman Hall on the second floor of the Brookline Village branch, 361 Washington St. Library hours run Monday-Thursday 10 a.m.-9 p.m., Friday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday 1-5 p.m. No closing date has been announced; check brooklinelibrary.org for updates.
More book-related events on the calendar:
- July 27 — Book Swap at Brookline Booksmith
- July 30 — Queer Book Club at Brookline Booksmith
- July 31 — Author event with Diana Arterian and Marina Omar at Brookline Booksmith
- Sept. 17 — Shannon Hale, "Dream Big," at Hunneman Hall, Brookline Village Library
