This Monday (11/14/22) was my first time leading the opening and ending of the Art and Spirituality Program with other facilities and volunteers at Suffolk County House of Correction. This program provides people in prison with accessible art materials, valuable time just sitting together and making art, and space to express missing and thanking their loved ones. As usual, we started by reading the poem, “Reflections after Compline” by Sue Stock [1] and sharing a word that reflects the day. Then we made cards or origami art together. After creation, we came back as a group and shared our creativity.
Musings from the Margins
Bending Time
“Cultures with long memories, still connected to their oldest ways, know that time is nonlinear, circular, mysterious.” –adrienne maree brown
“If you cannot imagine a future that you would want to be a part of because of the trauma of your past, that’s a recipe for despair.” –The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
Group Play
Playing is an essential part of everyone’s life. Children learn and develop their skills from playing; they play almost all the time. As adults, we sometimes forget the simple joy we play with. In my culture, if an adult is still playing, it somehow means that person is not mature enough. However, after leading this week’s art project, I think we can still learn something from playing and enjoy our simple joy in the community.
Bringing Myself into the Community
It is the fifth week since I joined Emmanuel Church. Time passes so fast, especially this season! Bringing art projects to Common Art and Cafe Emmanuel groups, I focused on art in nature. When I noticed all the color changes on the street, the idea of creating art with nature just leaped to my mind . So I brought some origami plants to Common Art on Wednesday.
Welcome our new expressive-arts interns!
Wan-li
I am Wanyi, a second-year graduate student studying Art Therapy at Lesley University. Having grown up in Taiwan, I had the chance to learn fine art for my bachelor’s degree and was fortunate to have lived and taught in three different countries. During those time periods, I found the therapeutic power of art through leading art-making sessions in my communities. To further my knowledge in using art as a therapeutic medium, I came to the US to learn from the best.
Easter Play
The Wednesday before Easter we had a lovely celebration at common art. We spent the morning making Easter eggs. It was great to have everyone working on their artwork with this additional festive activity available. With the holiday and Spring now upon us, spirits have been greatly lifted. The long winter was definitely not easy for many in our community, which made me appreciate our joy so much more.
Weaving a Farewell Tapestry
I am thinking of endings today as I recently announced to the community that I only have a short time left at common art. I expressed my gratitude to everyone and told the community how much they have helped me grow. I shared with them the site where I’ll be going for my second internship and explained how my experience with them helped me get this opportunity.
Trading Cards
This week I really felt my growth as a facilitator. Over this past year I have worked on building my confidence and my ability to identify what art activities will be well received by the community. While I can come up with many ideas of art to make, not all of them are going to be of interest to the artists. So, in order to lead a successful art-making idea I need to have built my own confidence as well as an understanding of what the community enjoys. I also need to know what small challenges could be embraced.
Silent Appreciation
One thing I am coming to learn is to not be afraid of hearing the word no. Even if I feel certain someone will say no, when it comes to inviting someone to participate, I am learning to ask anyway. Not only because it is nice to be included and thought of even when you don’t plan on participating, but also sometimes the answer is yes! This week I made it my mission to go out of my comfort zone and ask people to join my artmaking even if I feel certain they will say no. While I did get many no’s at common art on Wednesday, I also got so many more yes’s than usual because I put myself out there and was okay with hearing no. This has become a theme throughout my time at common art. I find whenever I push myself to ask anyway, I am so happily surprised by people’s willingness to join in.
Identifying Strengths
This winter at common art we have had a lot of staff and volunteers away, whether for just a week or for some months. Missing so many people really showed me how much each person brings to common art and how strongly I feel their absence. I was able to really test my growth last week as our resident artist Allie took a much-deserved week off. Her absence gave me a clear picture of just how much she does for the program.