While Mimetolith does not work exclusively in prisons, the criminal justice sector and secure environments are an important part of what we do. Our fundamental belief in the value of art as a powerful community tool drives us to deliver projects in prisons that engage incarcerated learners in creative processes, working closely with key stakeholders to help achieve SPS objectives throughout the prison estate.

A mimetolith is a rock formation in which we perceive some sort of meaning – often a face! The impulse to create meaning from the world around us has many names and uses when we make art. In psychology, it’s known as apophenia, or pareidolia. When we use it to make and read comics, we call it closure, and when we use it to bring imaginary worlds to life on the stage we call it complicity. 

For us, the mimetolith is a symbol of innate human creativity and our relationship with the world, and speaks to our process of interdisciplinary arts education.