In 1971, artist Faith Ringgold created a monumental painting “For the Women’s House” for the women incarcerated at Rikers Island jail. Fifty years later, artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, who gave birth in prison 15 years ago, finds herself banding together with an eclectic group of activists, politicians, artists, corrections officers and Faith Ringgold herself to free the artwork with the ultimate goal of freeing the women. Paint Me a Road Out of Here is a wild tale of the painting’s whitewashed journey and the two artists who challenged the same powerful and oppressive institutions, a half century apart, with their artwork, their voices and their shared, persistent goals.
Following the screening, the film’s director Catherine Gund will join artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter and executive director of Crenshaw Dairy Mart Ashley Blakeney for a Q&A moderated by Kristin Juarez, senior research specialist for Academic Outreach at the Getty Research Institute.
This program is part of the Art on Screen series, which celebrates moving-image media and its intersection with art and art histories, and Black Visions: Film as Archive. It is co-presented with Crenshaw Dairy Mart, an artist collective and art gallery dedicated to shifting the trauma-induced conditions of poverty and economic injustice, bridging cultural work and advocacy, and investigating ancestries through the lens of Inglewood and its community. This program also complements the Getty Scholars Program’s 2025–2026 annual theme of Repair.
