Isaac’s Quarterly (IQ) is a socially concerned faith-based company founded by multimedia visual artist Pastor Isaac Scott to provide culturally representative aesthetics.

MISSION

IQ’s mission is to center the principles of God by fostering the transformative power of strategic arts engagement at every level from research and education to exhibition and performance. We use visual arts, graphic design, and popular media to promote spiritual wellness, artistic literacy, and responsible messaging. Pastor Isaac founded IQ on the belief that art is at the forefront of social change. We are committed to helping artists use each form of art to advocate for the advancement of equal human rights. IQ’s primary goal is to provide advantageous resources to artists abroad. We use the word or God, arts & media, and aesthetic literacy to educate, empower, and enable all people to lead successful and purposeful lives. IQ believes in supporting entrepreneurial strength amongst artists, ensuring that new and aspiring artists gain a degree of self-sustainability within their practice.  

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Widespread pejorative labels and popular depictions of individuals impacted by the criminal legal system—in real-life and the media—dehumanize people who have been or will become justice-involved. Dehumanization in art and popular culture contributes to punitive attitudes, abusive penal policies, physical and sexual abuse of prisoners, general desensitization to such abuse and reluctance to societal reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals. The role of popular media in dehumanizing people in the criminal justice system undeniably influences the general public’s pervasive negative perception of those people who are justice-impacted. This negative misperception actually encourages the public’s willingness to legitimize or ignore prison related injustices and to countenance the dehumanization of people in prison. 

IQ’s work is guided by the question: why does the general public legitimize and/or ignore the inhumane treatment of people who are vulnerable to the carceral system? One potential factor is the social stigma associated with people who live in impoverished conditions. We believe that stigmas influence the general public’s dehumanizing perspectives of people in prison and there needs to be a visual paradigm shift in the public narrative about people who experience incarceration. One that restores humanity, individuality, and extends compassion to each stigmatized person.

HOW WE ARE ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM

Art is at the forefront of change. The process begins when we imagine a new world, one that is devoid of stigma and inequality. Resourceful artistic creativity within social change is one of the most influential and sometimes overlooked methods of problem solving. When rational lived experiences are not enough to change people's minds, attitudes, and behavior, art and popular culture have the potential to touch people on deeper levels of consciousness. ​

OUR UNIQUE SOLUTIONS

THE CONFINED ARTS (TCA) is a solutions-focused, artist-led program created by IQ to promote humanity and the need for narratives that highlight humanity, cultural context, and redemption for the lives of people who are at risk to experience incarceration or other forms of confinement. 

TCA has a 2-part mission: 
  1. Use narratives that enable the imagination to counter the dehumanizing narratives that are driving criminal justice policy, and for the implementation of scenarios and solutions transcending the stigmatizing and unjust status quo.
  2. Recognize and elevate the role of the arts in touching people emotionally, fostering human connection, building empathy, bridging worlds, changing the hearts and minds of people able to influence policy, building activism, and  enabling people to both envision a different world and make it a reality.
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TCA is fiscally sponsored program located at Columbia University and at Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church. This program cultivates and showcases the talents and creative voices of artists directly impacted by mass incarceration and intersecting social justice issues. TCA enables artists to express their voices through the visual and performing arts, poetry, and music as a means to abolish inhumane narratives and socially degrading stigmas that are used to describe the past experiences and limit the futures of individuals impacted by incarceration. Through artistry, collaborative activism, research, education and training, TCA equips artists to influence policy change, and use their artistry and knowledge to advocate for a world anchored on empathy and saturated with healing and prevention-based policies
QUARTERLY FILMS is a culturally sensitive, socially concerned, artist-led film group of Isaac's Quarterly LLC. We provide video, media and consulting services to change agents, innovators, and artists who seek to produce media content that confronts stereotypical mainstream media misrepresentations of poverty, race, culture, group identification, and social injustices by centering the voices of those people who are physically and socially impacted from the inside out. ​As a Certified Producer/Director Pastor Scott is committed to producing video and media content that honestly represents the true, lived narratives of stigmatized people.  ​Services include:
  • Film and Media Services
  • Creative Graphic Design Services
  • Aesthetic Consultation Services