As a Recreation and Leisure Intern at Misericordia, I see
creativity around every corner of my job.
Misericordia is a residential facility for adults living with
developmental disabilities ranging across the spectrum. I specifically assist with art, yoga, and
dance classes. Living with a
disability requires creativity to simply manage every day tasks. Yet,
through art, music, yoga, dance, and more—the residents at Misericordia strive
to express their creativity in unlimited ways. My experiences at Misericordia inspired me to
search out other communities for Creatives living with disabilities, which led
me to the Arts of Life studio in Chicago.
The Arts of Life studio is a space for artists both with and
without disabilities to work together and create together. The studio functions somewhat in a co-op
model. Whenever a new artist wants to join the space, the entire community must
vote and agree upon it. The studio was started by three individuals—a
70-year-old woman (commonly referred to as “granny”) with an intellectual
disability and a mental illness, a “self-taught, unconventional artist” and a
professional with knowledge about developmental disabilities. The three founders brought in nine others
with developmental disabilities who had been living together.
Collaboration is the key component of the Arts of Life
studio, as evidenced by their motto: “Creating. Sharing. Growing.” The creating
and sharing components are obvious in the co-op and the art, but it is the
growing component that I find most creative.
The studio runs on four core values:
1.
Inspiring artistic expression
2.
Building community
3.
Promoting self-respect
4.
Developing independence
The most unique part of the studio is that it is actually a
Developmental Training (DT) program, which is why growth is the third portion
of the motto. For people with developmental disabilities, behavioral issues can often arise. DT programs assist in
behavioral modification in hopes of adjusting the individual into everyday life
activities such as maintaining a job, education, or other extracurricular
activities. Arts of Life is considered
an “alternative” DT program for people who may have had issues in other
programs. My mentor and supervisor,
Sarah Wainright, had an internship at Arts of Life in college and described the
studio as “very punk” and a space for people who “enjoy the autonomy of art.”
The studio is a space of growth for a community that holds artists of all types
to a free and autonomous lifestyle of creativity, development, and expression.
I think the creative idea that rings most true from
Gardner’s text in the Arts of Life Studio is the triangle of relationships
diagrammed as themes in the text—but most importantly the relationship between
an individual and other persons in his or her world. I think creativity, especially in the
traditional art sense, is thought of to be an individual activity. The Arts of Life studio dismantles this idea
completely, just as Gardner writes, “the role of other individuals is crucial
throughout their development” (p.8). The creating and sharing process
at Arts of Life studio needs a community in order for artists with and without
disabilities to flourish. Most uniquely, the "alternative" developmental training program implores the assistance of other individuals and commands growth from all participants in an innovative way.
Works Cited:
http://artsoflife.org/our-story
http://www.misericordia.com/
Sarah Wainright Interview (February 18, 2016)
Creating Minds by Howard Gardner
Photos of art by studio artists:
Tiger by Pam Robe
Skeleton Girl by Danny Frownfelter
I am planning to attend grad school for art therapy, so this post immediately caught my eye. Art has always been a healing tool, but it is only in recent years that people have started to recognize art's power from a scientific perspective. I loved reading about this organization--the use of art to connect people and communicate things that might not be expressed otherwise.
ReplyDeleteI am also very interested in art therapy, so this post grabbed my attention. In another course of mine, focused on emotional healing through disease and illness, we recently spoke about the use of art when working with children with serious illnesses, such as cancer, rare blood disorders, and cystic fibrosis. Though children with terminal illnesses are a different population than those with development disabilities, the use of artwork proves to be therapeutic in similar ways. Often times, the artwork can work as an outlet for emotions the person does not know how to express. By really connecting with the emotions a person is feeling, and by them transferring this to some form of artwork, the level of creativity that can be reached is limitless.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting similarity between people with developmental disabilities, and children in hospitals with terminal illness, is that developmentally, they tend to be much more direct and concrete in thought. There would be less of a filter between emotion and what gets put on to paper. I suppose one could argue that some of the great minds are also best able to tap into their deeper emotions without distraction from the outside world. I think this plays into the "playful" part of Csikszentmihalyi's "playfulness and discipline" personality dichotomy of creative people. Perhaps, people who are younger, or possibly who are developmentally delayed, may naturally have a youthful playfulness that allows their work to be some of the most creative.
I am also very interested in art therapy, so this post grabbed my attention. In another course of mine, focused on emotional healing through disease and illness, we recently spoke about the use of art when working with children with serious illnesses, such as cancer, rare blood disorders, and cystic fibrosis. Though children with terminal illnesses are a different population than those with development disabilities, the use of artwork proves to be therapeutic in similar ways. Often times, the artwork can work as an outlet for emotions the person does not know how to express. By really connecting with the emotions a person is feeling, and by them transferring this to some form of artwork, the level of creativity that can be reached is limitless.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting similarity between people with developmental disabilities, and children in hospitals with terminal illness, is that developmentally, they tend to be much more direct and concrete in thought. There would be less of a filter between emotion and what gets put on to paper. I suppose one could argue that some of the great minds are also best able to tap into their deeper emotions without distraction from the outside world. I think this plays into the "playful" part of Csikszentmihalyi's "playfulness and discipline" personality dichotomy of creative people. Perhaps, people who are younger, or possibly who are developmentally delayed, may naturally have a youthful playfulness that allows their work to be some of the most creative.
I really enjoyed reading this post. Back in high school I was involved with a theatre company in my hometown that did similar work by bringing together people with and without developmental disabilities together to choreograph and perform productions, and while it wasn't a therapy program in the way that Arts of Life is, it was really evident that they benefited a lot from being part of the community and from putting their time and energy into creating art. I definitely think that the expansion of our definition of "creativity" from being an individual endeavor to potentially being a group process can help us better understand the importance of programs like this
ReplyDeleteI always love reading about different types of art therapy. While this isn't exactly a "new" idea, I still believe that it's a very important one. I was involved with a program that uses art therapy for the mentally ill instead of the developmentally disabled. In my experience, this also seemed to be a very helpful diagnostic tool for doctors. Even if people couldn't talk about their "demons," drawing them seemed to help doctors personalize their treatment much better. I'm not sure if this classifies as the textbook definition of creative genius, but each artist is definitely creative in their own way.
ReplyDelete