Lansing Correctional Facility

A group of diverse people seated and standing in a gymnasium, watching a man playing keyboard and singing, with a microphone and musical instruments nearby.

Teaching Artist Elliot Cole leads Lansing workshop participants in a vocal exercise.

Overview

Location: Lansing, KS
Facility: min./med./max. security facility for men
Since: 2021
Participants: 20 per workshop
Time: 3-4 hours per day, 5 days, twice per year
Instructors: 2-3 per workshop
Workshops Held: 8
Partnership: University of Missouri-Kansas City

Two men sitting and playing guitars, engaging in a music therapy session. One man is older with tattoos and a beard, holding a bass guitar, while the younger man has glasses and is holding an electric guitar. The background features a quote about music therapy enhancing self-confidence and self-esteem.

Program

Musicambia’s newest program is at Lansing Correctional Facility (LCF), run in partnership with the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). In October 2021, Founder/Artistic Director Nathan Schram and Teaching Artist Elliot Cole led a 5-day songwriting workshop at LCF, along with UMKC Professors Yotam Haber and Owen Belcher, and three of their students. Since the initial 5-day workshop, Yotam, Owen and their students have been returning to LCF twice a month during the academic year, to continue working with the workshop participants.

To date, Musicambia has led eight songwriting workshops, with more planned for the 2025-26 academic year. Our April and May 2023 workshops were profiled by the Kansas Department of Corrections in this video.

Musicambia’s program at Lansing Correctional Facility is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

Last updated: 5-13-25