January 28, 2021 | Gretchen M. Miller, MA, ATR-BC, ACTP, Chair, DEI Committee of the Board
Thank you to everyone who participated in and helped promote the DEI Committee’s Listening Session series over the last couple of months! Twelve groups were facilitated by The Ivy Planning Group. Throughout this series over 100 art therapists, art therapy students, AATA members, and non-members participated, contributing feedback about their experiences and views related to DEI in the art therapy field and within the AATA. We appreciate the time each participant volunteered to show up and contribute to this important process. We value the feedback and conversations that were shared. These voices, experiences, and views about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of art therapy and the AATA will help us create sustainable change and a shift in culture for a diverse, equitable, and inclusive profession.
Please note that if you have not completed the AATA DEI Organizational Questionnaire, you still have time to do so before it closes on February 4, 2021. Even if you did not attend or sign up for a Listening Session, we would still like to hear from you about the culture and climate of the AATA related to DEI. We invite everyone in the art therapy community to complete this questionnaire. Responses are anonymous.
What’s next?
Notes taken by The Ivy Planning Group during each group will be used by the DEI Committee to lead a collaborative analysis review. This review will comprise of a team that includes members of the AATA’s Multicultural Committee, Research Committee, and researchers outside of the art therapy field to help analyze and examine themes and findings that emerged in the data of each session, as well as information gathered from the AATA DEI Organizational Questionnaire. We are aiming for this review process to begin in February. Our goal is to publish an in-depth report of these findings for AATA members and the art therapy community to review. The overall findings will be valuable to inform and continue future DEI action planning, Association strategic planning, and ways we can keep learning about and growing DEI in art therapy. Please stay connected to future issues of Art Therapy Today for new updates as we work on this next phase.