AiHResources

Notes on Arts and the System of Care Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. ~Stella Adler

Arts Festival on May 2

DRAGON on the HILL, brush painting, Ron Gee

MAKING FELTED BRACELETS, Gar Wang making (and taking) felted bracelets

ORIGAMI LARGE and small, Rob Gulick

SILK PAINTING watch or participate in making silk murals for SoC House, Courtni Hale

WEAVING: Community and personal looms. Peg Kimple

FLY a KITE! Glenn Carter with 40 kites available to decorate and fly

EXPLORING IMAGINATION: Danile Mack has a table full of unusual activities

Decorative Arts

Between March and May 2010, several artists were involved in designing and doing workshops that resulted in a body of arts work for the newly renovated System of Care House in Montgomery, NY.

Artists working with the Parent Advisory Board held decorative workshops for the participating youth where abstract and narrative wall decoration were made. The artists were skilled at lightly shaping the process but not pre-deternmining the ouitcomes. It was a very successful example of art being the safe vessel for personal self-discovery and sel-expression. The artists developed several metahpors for making opbjects ... The SoC house is like a charm bracelet with various home-made charms available to hang in various rooms; The made/painted objects ar both Stairs to other places and Ladders, sometimesTwisted Ladders that look like DNA: that we are always working with nature, history and hope.

The artists included; Ron Gee, Gar Wang, Daniel Mack, Molly Reid, Everett Cox, Mary Sealfon, and John Simon . About 60 hours of their time was dedicated to this project.

Dangers: (editorials)

1. "Arts" can easily become spiritually-groundless arts and crafts activities. The artists involved must have a sense of the spiritual depth of the arts experience and not just be facile technicians or product-producers.

2. It is dangerous if the arts experiences are just formatted like "workshops". The rules, times, procedures eclipse the possible "flow" that marks art. Or as an old teacher of mine said: "The medium is the message" . If arts are packaged like just another self-help, improvement, skills event, that's all they will ever be.

Suggestion? Experiment with format. Try to follow this dictum: "No art for me, without me. Get serious, exprienced artists involved; not just the desperate volunteers or young artists needing gigs and wanting to" help people" Have senior artists help design the Menu of arts with the SoC youth. You cannot trust that the SoC youth already know what they want. It is the institution's obligation to help create real choice for the youth from a rich and diverse menu. Not just pizza, soda and candy. Create real choice, healthy choice.

Values of Arts In silence we must wrap much of our life, because it is too fine for speech.” Emerson

addresses the Needs for Awe, Wonder, Stories of Encounters with Chaos, How Order and Disorder happen, and safe contact with the Feral/Carnal.

Making and Marking Meaning in Ordinary Life.

a primal old communication form that all people share--across racial, cultural, social, educational, and economic barriers.

symbol systems of equal importance to letters, numbers and words -- none of which can exhaust what we can know nor what we feel.

Its effects are unique, significant, and silent.

helps balance the brain.

for times of Speechlessness: expressing what cannot be said in times, feelings, experiences

a unique form/experience of thinking and feeling through and within a material; making patterns with materials, in forms that have a personal and perhaps community meanings; repeated encounters of making some order from the chaos of daily living

PERSONAL BENEFITS:

e gratification, competence, tolerance, compassion, empathy, Integration: mind, body, and spirit; avenues to "flow states" and peak experiences

opportunity to safely experience new processes from beginning to end.

Self-expression: bringing the inner world into the outer world of concrete reality; ways to use personal strengths for difficult abstractions

Immediate feedback: opportunities for reflection, judgments and actions; merge the learning of process and content.

“Non-intentional therapeutics” for respite, relief, repair, address deferred hungers, needs

Diversity: repeated encounters with multiple perspectives, multi-dimensional nature of reality and problems can have more than one solution

Encounters with Change: complex forms of problem solving are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity. Things pass; things change things are delicate. Everything is not available at all time; Seasons, Stages, Cycles

Mutuality: develops both independence and collaboration. constant exchange : process of taking and giving, of borrowing and creating; we learn from each other and we inspire each other. a form of diplomacy in which we can all take part

Challenges our assumptions in unusual ways; expand our understandings, push us to view world in new unexpected; disrupts power patterns because it calls into question the world view. can be contrary to status quo

Short List of Artist Workshops/Activities for System of Care events and Mentoring:

DRAGON on the HILL, brush painting, Ron Gee

MAKING FELTED BRACELETS, Gar Wang making (and taking) felted bracelets

ORIGAMI LARGE and small, Rob Gulick

SILK PAINTING watch or participate in making silk murals for SoC House, Courtni Hale

WEAVING: Community and personal looms. Peg Kimple

FLY a KITE! Glenn Carter with 40 kites available to decorate and fly

MURAL in NATURE with muds and charcoal Janet Fastta and Heidi Lanino

PORCH MURAL, Mark Stanciweicz working on a mural for the SoC front porch

MANDALA MAKING making geometries with leaves, grasses in Nature

WHAT IS QI GONG? Gar Wang

MAKING HAND PRINTS, Janet Fatta

PLAY a DRUM! few drums for a drumming circle if appropriate

COLOR with NATURE with nature colors and leaves from the Park. Laurie Seeman

MUSIC! Banjo and the Dancing Dan percussion dolls Dottie and Chris Brune
STORYTELLER: Julia Morris

MOVEMENT/DANCE Linda Mensch

ART, Mary Sealfon

DRAMA, Paul Ellis, Melanie Gold

Master List of Possible Workshops with/for SoC Youth and Families 3.11.10

CALL FOR ARTISTS

For the next 18 months, qualified artists will be hired by the Orange County Arts Council to do workshops and other arts services which help address the needs of youth and families in System of Care, the portal for mental health and social services in Orange County The Arts Council is compiling a Master List of Workshops and Arts Services in Orange County to serve as the registry or menu for System of Care youth, families and social service agencies looking for arts programming. In addition, there will be regular System of Care events where artists can meet and introduce themselves and their work to System of Care youth, families and Care Takers.

It is hoped that this infusion of practicing artists into a healthcare delivery system will evidence the unique and profound contribution arts makes to human healing. The approach of this project is quite special.

All arts activities are developed with SoC youth. “No arts programming for me, without me”. Arts programs are chosen by Youth, not foisted on them.
Emphasis is the personal experiences and discoveries which accompany the art product-making. The art products are much like apple cores or peanut shells. They indicate that something nourishing has happened; they are the reminders of a nourishing, feeding activity. The key role of the participating artists is to create and hold a space where encounters with art can be experienced as a step in personal awareness, growth, achievement. Again, the art product is interesting , but incidental. Art encounters should work with the interests and strengths of the Youth. Artists want to create a climate, not task or chore, for self-discovery of latent talents, strengths and perceptions, expressive abilities Artists want to create a alternative culture, an invitation to explore, so young people say: I want more of this!
Arts activities are as body-based as possible, and as nature-oriented as possible.

Orange County artists and arts service providers are invited to send along descriptions of the workshops and arts services and encounters they can provide for a Master List of Workshops and Arts Services Descriptions should be only a few sentences long. Remember, these words are the “sales pitch” for people to want to learn more about you and your skills in arts and healing. Include also a history of workshop teaching experience and other pertinent information. We are looking for only the very best, experienced teachers. Inexperienced but interested teachers may qualify to intern with a master teacher. We will provide an orientation for all artists working in the System of Care.

Artists must be skilled at:

creating a safe environment, building relationships with others

developing the right language and energy to work well

social skills of engagement: greeting and inviting people into an artictic event

selling the concept and value of arts to administrators, and participants. They should have the "Arts Elevator Speech" easily available.

organizing and planning: time, activity, people

Listening: assimilating new information and intgrating it into action.

Narrative of Grant Application to System of Care January 10, 2010

Arts are a fundamental part of human life and art-making is as basic as any other human activity. Art-making is the expression and response to the chaos and disorder of living and art-making offers people the chance share with others the ways they see and respond to being alive. Most simply, Art Heals. More clinically, “art-making is non-intentional therapy.” The Orange County Arts Council proposes these three related arts programs specifically designed for the Vision and Mission of Orange County System of Care to enrich the quality of service by making practicing artists appropriately available to System of Care children, youth, their families & caretakers. The following three programs are designed for Orange County System of Care and offered by Orange County artists:

1. Orientation Workshops: Working with At-Risk Youth Two 10-Meeting Sessions in 24 Weeks

To better integrate Orange County artists into the Orange County System of Care, the arts community must learn about the lives of at-risk youth and their families. Artists must also gain knowledge of the appropriate protocols and models used by local mental health, social service and the educational institutions involved with these families on a daily basis. Similarly, institutional caregivers can benefit from a better understanding of the unique contributions arts and artists can offer to the caretaking process. The training builds from the experiences gained in the current Arts and Healthcare Seminar

Structure of each 18 hour Session of Training:
10 hours: Training and orientation to the use of arts in System of Care: introduction to the elements of art- making and the protocols of System of Care services.

4 hours practicum: each participant develops and presents a practice workshop

4 hours follow-up support meetings while artists are actually working on SoC projects

Artists participating must

o Be professionals who exhibit high artistic quality

o have experience working with youth

o able to write and present an art lesson or curriculum plan in an organized manner and appreciate and respond effectively to students who come from impoverished and complex social environments

o be able to integrate the arts across a curriculum that conveys social messages to encourage positive behaviors

o readily agree to participate in training to acquire the skills needed to work with youth at risk

o and work well in collaboration and partnership with other art teachers, educators, and caseworkers.

Once a sufficient number of artists have responded, a selection process will begin that meets official public agency requirements. Artists submit a resume and a proposed curriculum, following a prescribed format. Resumes will be reviewed and preliminary interviews conducted with applicants. We estimate that 20-30 Orange County artists will be interested in this program (two offerings) and paying for a share of the cost and that 10-15 Orange County mental health professionals will audit this. This training will introduce the two worlds of System of Care providers and teaching artists. Each group will be invited to safely learn and explore more about the others environment and start to identify dynamic common areas of interest and build opportunities for mutual work.

2. Mentoring:

To help at-risk youth and their families battling a variety of adversities by harnessing the influence of professionally trained artists who wish to share their knowledge and experience. With support from the mental health field, the Arts Council provides hands on mentorship training, educational arts workshop, and real life opportunities to perform and create. We plan to empower at-risk youth to face their struggles and help them develop comprehensive life skills guided by professionals and supported by their community. Artists work every day with the unpredictability of life: its irregularity, disappointment and ambiguity. They have learned to address these conditions artistically in their work Artists are quite well-suited to be with at-risk youth and children likely experiencing these same life questions.

1. A group of Orange County artists are trained and oriented to be Mentors in the System of Care.

2. System of Care children and youth are identified as possible participants in the mentoring Program. Up to 80 youth could participate in individual and/or group mentoring

3. Artists meet with youth in an Arts Fair-like environment to start the process. From this, small groups are formed or one-on-one arrangements are proposed.

4. Mentoring begins on a weekly basis with monthly progress reviews.

3. Arts for Respite:

Arts not only heal, but often soothe. Arts for Respite proposes to bring demonstrating artists to System of Care youth, families and caretakers on a regular basis at convenient locations. The model is not so much a “workshop” but as a stress reliever or to provide some needed “breathing room.” Trained artists alert to the needs of the people in the System of Care, will be available a few times a week introducing their work and allowing people to join them in exploring materials or techniques of art-making. The arts opportunities of this project offer simple relief and diversion from the tasks of caretaking. Secondly, it offers the possibility of learning about the skills and pleasures of various form of art-making and contributes to a new area for building competence and self-esteem. Thirdly, it offers the comfort and support of a group experience.

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. ~Stella Adler

BOOKS Mentioned

Visual Thinking, Rudolf Arnheim

Art Therapy work of Edith Klein

SoulCollage

Artist-in-Residence: Creative Center Approach

The Artist Within

WORKSHOP TOOLS

QUOTE EXCHANGE : select, swap, discuss as intro of self to group

Use VISUAL EXPLORER Visual thinking exercises, frame question, select picture, present

Favored Object prsentation... an adult version of that old standby, "Show and Tell"

WEB REFERENCES:

http://systemsofcare.samhsa.gov/