The Eden Project is an initiative that transforms prison spaces through art and mural painting. Created inside the death sentence quarter of the Central Prison of Douala New Bell, the project brought together inmates and artists for a one-month workshop led by visual artist, painter, and JTR co-founder Dione Roach alongside the prison’s collective of painters.

Together, they covered the walls of death row with large-scale murals inspired by gardens, forests, and natural landscapes, offering a glimpse of nature to prisoners who may never experience it again outside the prison walls. In 2025, the initiative expanded to repaint another section of the prison known as the “Texas.”

The Eden Project explores how art can reconnect people with humanity inside spaces of extreme confinement. By bringing images of nature into prison, the project creates moments of escape, reflection, and connection to nature within places often defined by isolation and violence. Rooted in the belief that beauty can transform even the harshest spaces, the initiative uses murals as a way to restore a sense of life, imagination, and emotional openness where it is most needed.