Wednesday, December 17, 2025
“Art is therapy,” said nonagenarian Mia Choumenkovitch.
That’s why this ardent and feisty Georgetowner is still pursuing her passion, teaching art to inmates in the D.C. 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 house in Georgetown’s East village—walls covered with her students’ art—for more than half her life.
Every Tuesday she greets her students at the D.C. 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, and an eagerness to teach. They view “Miss Mia” (as they call her) as their mother or grandmother. 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.
When asked why at her age, she’s still teaching at the DC jail, Choumenkovitch said the need for art is so important.
“I teach them how to hold a pencil and how to draw, where the eyes belong on the face,” she added. “I ask my guys what’s between land and sky?” “
Choumenkovitch works with individuals who have no experience and hopes to motivate them as artists. “If they work with me, they produce,” she said. “Art equals therapy.”
Choumenkovitch does not 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,” she said. “It’s a clear vision whether it’s Picasso or someone else.”
Some of Choumenkovitch’s former students have become professional artists. She gave one a reference for art school and has helped others post-release. 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 D.C. Arts Commission and National Education Association at one point to enable her to teach thousands of inmates. When Lorton closed, she moved the program to the D.C. Department of Corrections facilities.
To help her students gain self-respect and a connection to community, she organizes art shows displaying their work. The current show, Art: A View, at the Georgetown Neighborhood Library (3260 R Street) 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 said.
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 so I have a happier life,” she said.