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| Virginia Group Seeks to Convert Prison Into Arts Complex |
| By Great Falls Times |
| Published: 09/30/2002 |
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In 1998, when talk surfaced in Lorton about closing the D.C. Lorton Correctional Facility, Irma Clifton began thinking about the prison's history and what would become of the buildings she had been driving past for more than 20 years. 'She saw the potential for the buildings,' said local artist Jackie Delclos of Clifton's vision. 'Many thought we should tear them down. Nobody else saw the potential until she pointed it out.' Having worked at the prison for several years, Clifton knew the buildings inside and out, and she saw the future of the prison, now called Laurel Hill. She also knew the arts community had no viable outlet in the southern portion of Fairfax County, and, although she enjoyed spending time in Occoquan, Old Town and Washington, D.C., none of those were in her immediate community. Clifton is now president of the Lorton Arts Foundation, which was established in October 2001 and is working toward the foundation's primary goal of creating an arts campus within the Occoquan Workhouse medium security complex located in the southern portion of the former prison. In a proposal completed last month, the foundation has outlined a method to preserve, renovate and reuse the Occoquan Workhouse. The 40-acre section would be transformed from run-down historical buildings where inmates lived and worked into a center for the arts. The refurbished workhouse would include studios, an art gallery, a prison museum, a black box theater, an events center, an outdoor music center, office space, restaurants, residential space and a 35,000-square-foot performing arts center, among other attractions. The campus would accommodate different aspects of the arts community, including visual and performing arts, while incorporating the history of the former jail, which once housed 170 women arrested for advocating women's suffrage among other inmates. |
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