In late 2015, Ricky Jackson took the stage at TEDxMet. \u00a0Having served a 39-year prison sentence for a crime he did not commit. Many might have expected Ricky to talk about the justice system. \u00a0Instead, Ricky took us on a journey to freedom, a journey that began in his childhood. \u00a0His talk reminds us that the true power of museums isn\u2019t their collections or spaces, but in the transformative power experienced by the people who visit them.<\/p>\n
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As Ricky states in his talk,<\/p>\n
Art was my lifeline in prison, and, again, it\u2019s a big reason and a big part of why I am the person I am today. \u00a0My friends would always ask me, \u201cWhere do you take off to?\u201d and \u201cWhere do you go?\u201d \u00a0And I just said \u201caround\u201d because I really didn\u2019t want them to know that I was going to the museum. \u00a0To me, that was my sanctuary, that was my place of refuge, that was my temple, my mosque, my synagogue. That was my holy place.<\/p>\n
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Art was the catalyst to get me to other vehicles in my life. \u00a0I educated myself through art. \u00a0I learned about the world through art. \u00a0I learned about people, places through art. \u00a0And this, again, was the main statement. \u00a0Everything was falling apart in my life. \u00a0I had stacks of art books in my cell. \u00a0In fact, I had so many I had to get rid of them. \u00a0A lot of them. \u00a0Again, art, more than anything else I can honestly think of, is what got me here on this stage today. \u00a0And just believing that there was something better out there, and I wanted to be a part of it. \u00a0I didn\u2019t belong here, and art always reminded me of that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ricky goes on to discuss his exoneration and his first visit to the Cleveland Museum of Art after his release. \u00a0Ricky\u2019s description of how one object remained with him after nearly 40 years, and its impact on him when he visited again, is truly moving (and brought us to tears). \u00a0Ricky\u2019s talk reminds us that visitors find many things in museums – including home.<\/p>\n
Watch the entire talk in the video below:<\/p>\n