Entry No. 44 — the Colorado Springs file — filed under: prison-art
Art in Isolation — Fremont Center for the Arts
“a mass-murderer's still-life painting with a price tag”
Every August, a quiet nonprofit on Main Street in Cañon City hangs — and sells — original artwork made inside ADX Florence, America's only federal Supermax, where artists include Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols. This is the "Art in Isolation" exhibition, now in its eighth year, in which some 50 incarcerated artists contribute a combined 500 works priced $5–$300; half the sale proceeds go straight to the artists, administered by the prison toward restitution accounts. The center has moved $80,000+ in inmate art across prior shows, a fact covered by Colorado Sun, KUNC, and Rocky Mountain PBS — yet it never trends. What you're looking at is a mass-murderer's still-life painting with a price tag, hanging in an 1800s-era building in a small Colorado river town, and that is genuinely unlike anything else.
The story
About twenty minutes down the road from downtown Cañon City stands USP Florence ADMAX—Supermax—where federal prisoners spend 23 hours a day inside seven-by-twelve-foot concrete cells. But every August, their handiwork leaves the prison grounds and lands inside the Fremont Center for the Arts, a historic nonprofit operating out of an 1800s-era building on Main Street. Through the prison's Creative Arts Platform, roughly 50 incarcerated artists, including Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols, contribute around 500 original pieces to an annual exhibition titled Art in Isolation.
The production process is as controlled as you would imagine. Volunteer instructors pass raw materials—tissue paper, magazine clippings, and NASA telescope imagery—through narrow steel cell slots. Inmates work in total isolation or from gridded steel cages set up inside the prison gym, slipping finished sections back through the slot for instructors to assemble. Before anything hangs on the gallery walls, prison officials conduct a thorough walkthrough to clear the pieces. For security reasons, individual inmate names are removed from the gallery display tags.
What makes the show genuinely wild isn't just who made the art, but that you can buy it. Every piece is priced between $5 and $300, and the gallery has moved more than $80,000 worth of inmate artwork across its annual runs [1.1.4]. Half of the sale proceeds go straight into prison-administered accounts to cover mandatory court restitution. You are standing in a small Colorado river town looking at a mass murderer's paper collage or still life with a price tag attached, and you didn't hear it from us, but there is nothing else quite like it on the Front Range.
What it's like
Stepping into 523 Main Street puts you in a quiet, high-ceilinged gallery in the heart of Cañon City's historic Victorian district. While August is the center's busiest month of the year, the mood inside remains subdued and reflective. Visitors move slowly past temporary exhibition walls, reading collective artist statements detailing how men in cages pieced together intricate collages out of scavenged paper. If you intend to purchase a piece, go early in the month—lower-priced items under $50 go fast, though all bought pieces stay hanging on display until the show closes at the end of August.
The move: Time your trip to Cañon City in August when the exhibition is up, browse the 500-piece show at the Fremont Center, then walk the Royal Gorge afterward — you'll have a lot to talk about over dinner.
📍 Before you go The center sits at 523 Main Street in the heart of Cañon City's historic downtown — one of Colorado's largest intact Victorian districts, full of 1880s storefronts — inside the old Daily Record building. There's on-street parking along Main Street and accessible spots near the ADA entrance. Crucially, the Art in Isolation show hangs only once a year, in August, so plan your trip around it; hours shift seasonally, so check ahead. It's about an hour (roughly 46 miles) from Colorado Springs, an easy day trip. Pair it with the Arkansas Riverwalk, the fittingly grim Museum of Colorado Prisons, and the Royal Gorge a few miles west.
- 📍 Cañon City
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 523 Main St, Cañon City, CO 81212
Hours: Added 2026-06-09 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Winery at Holy Cross Abbey — Wash down the heavy moral complexity of Supermax prison art with a wine tasting at a former Benedictine monastery just two miles down the road.
- Hidden Peak Tiki Lounge — Pivot from stark high-security solitary art to a surreal tropical tiki hideaway tucked under a historic feedstore in Westcliffe.
- Silver Cliff Cemetery Ghost Lights — Follow an afternoon of prison art history with a nighttime search for unexplained glowing blue orbs in an 1880s mountain graveyard.
Good to know
When does the Art in Isolation exhibition take place?
The exhibition hangs only once a year during the month of August at the Fremont Center for the Arts [1.1.6].
How much does the art cost, and where does the money go?
Pieces are priced between $5 and $300. Half of the proceeds go directly toward inmate restitution accounts managed by the prison, while the rest supports the nonprofit art gallery.
Can you see which specific prisoner created a piece of art?
No. Due to Federal Bureau of Prisons security regulations, public display tags omit individual inmate names.
How far is Cañon City from Colorado Springs?
It is roughly 46 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, taking about an hour to drive down US-50.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: coloradosun.com · kunc.org · koaa.com · Official site
last checked: 2026-06-09