TEACHING ART TO PRISONERS IS MIA CHOUMENKOVITCH’S LOVE AFFAIR
“Art is therapy,” insists nonagenarian Mia Choumenkovitch.
That’s why this ardent and feisty native Serbian, a Washingtonian for almost five decades, is still pursuing her passion, teaching art to inmates in the DC jail.
Diminutive in physical size but not shy, this vivacious super ager and longtime Georgetown resident originally from the former Yugoslavia, was the daughter of a diplomat. She spent her early years in Europe and studied art on the Ivory Coast. She has lived in the same row house in D.C.’s Georgetown neighborhood—walls covered with her students’ art—for more than half her life.
Every Tuesday she greets her students at the DC jail —currently those in the psych ward (she has worked with maximum security inmates as well)— with colored pencils, paper and sometimes a small rubber lizard or bulldog (whatever fits into her meager budget) and an eagerness to teach.
They view “Miss Mia,” as they call her as their mother or grandmother. The common denominator: a mutual affection for one another. She shows them that they have a “choice” as to how to lead their lives. Her “boys” or her “guys” as she refers to her students, hug her at the end of each class to show their appreciation and affection.
“I teach them how to spell ‘mother,” she explains, “so they write it on a card they make and send to their mothers.”
“The need for art is so important,” she blurted out when asked why at her age, she’s still teaching at the DC jail. “I teach them how to hold a pencil and how to draw, and where the eyes belong on the face” explains Mia. “I ask ‘my guys’, what’s between land and sky?” “The basics. I’m working with people who have no experience. I motivate them as artists; if they work with me, they produce.”
“Art equals therapy,” says Mia, who doesn’t like the term “art therapy.” She prefers to describe what she does as “the basics—the ABC’s of art structure— and a key to healing.” “I show them how to connect with an object on their palette and their mood at the time. It’s a clear vision whether it’s Picasso or someone else.”
“I try to give identity and focus to my students and teach them that they have options in life.” I’m proud of them when I hear from them after release; they’ve learned and moved on in life. Some have even become professional artists. She gave one a reference for art school and has helped others post release; it’s mutual, one former student shoveled her walk after a snowstorm. It’s the pride in knowing that their lives change that drives her to continue the non-profit Lorton Art Program she founded half a century ago. She has secured grants from the DC Arts Commission and NEA at one point to enable her to teach thousands of inmates. When Lorton closed, she moved the program to the DC Department of Corrections facilities.
To help her students gain self-respect and a connection to community, she organizes art shows displaying their work. Currently the show, Art: A View, at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library runs til January 2026. When a work sells, Mia either saves the proceeds for the student until release or sends it to their mother or significant other at their direction. “It gives them something to look forward to,” she explains. “Think education within incarceration.”
Mia describes her success as “making a fine human being out of a broken pot by helping to put the pieces together again.”
There’s mutual benefit: “They inspire me,” says Mia, “so I have a happier life.”
Www.lortonartprogram.org
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