AATA Blog
SoCalATA Honors Lauryn Hunter: Art Therapist Helps Standing Rock Children and Families
By Teresa Grame | February 23, 2017 | Community
The Southern California Art Therapy Association (SoCalATA) was honored to present Lauryn Hunter, LMFT, ATR with the Art Therapy Distinguished Service Award at our Annual General meeting held on February 4, 2017. The award recognized Lauryn for her important role in responding to the needs of the children and families of the water protectors at Standing Rock in North Dakota, in addition to her work in the local schools of Los Angeles.
Eco-Art Therapy: Deepening Connections with the Natural World
By Ellen Speert | October 27, 2016 | About Art Therapy
The Nez Pierce have a saying: “Heal yourself and heal Mother Earth and all our relations.” It is widely agreed that art therapy is as old as the earliest human expression. We cite prehistoric cave paintings as evidence that people used art (therapy) to relate to what was most important to their lives, utilizing available materials to summon power in relationship to their needs.
Transformations in Time: Art Therapy Exhibit Captures Responses to 9/11
By Kat Michel | September 7, 2016 | Trauma | Events
From September 6-8, 2016, Bellevue Hospital in New York City will be hosting the exhibit “Transformations in Time,” artwork created in response to 9/11 and in observance of its 15th anniversary. The artworks, created through the Art Therapy Program at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue’s World Trade Center (WTC) Environmental Health Center, serve as visual representations of change and growth.
Art Therapists Empower College Students through Craftivism
By Lauren Leone, Michaela Kirby, and Nancy Lautenbach, | June 29, 2016 | Education | Events
“Felt and yarn, things I only associated with being soft and warm, are now materials that I see as strong, empowering and secure. It also does help that there is so much meaning in using an art form that was really seen as women’s work to spread awareness about social justice for women.”
— Gopi Shah, Craft & Chat workshop participant
Bringing Art to Life through Storytelling
By Sarah Margaret Wade | April 27, 2016 | About Art Therapy | Community | #WeAreArtTherapists
I recently attended a celebratory gala and art show at the University of Alabama to honor five years of Art to Life, a program of art therapy and storytelling for adults diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders. Art to Life is a course sponsored by University of Alabama’s Honors College in collaboration with the Cognitive Dynamics Foundation in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month at Make Studio
By Jill E. Scheibler | April 1, 2016 | #WeAreArtTherapists
Since the early 1970s, April has been recognized as Autism Awareness Month and, more recently, it has been additionally or alternatively celebrated as Autism Acceptance Month.
Charleston Heals Through Art: HeArts Mends Hearts
By Dianne Tennyson Vincent | March 2, 2016 | Trauma | #WeAreArtTherapists
June 17, 2015 was a peaceful evening in downtown Charleston, SC. A regular Wednesday night prayer meeting service was taking place in the historic Emanuel AME Church. After an hour of Bible study and prayer, the unthinkable happened. A young, unfamiliar white man welcomed to the group pulled a gun and killed nine parishioners, including State Senator Clementa C. Pinckney. A grandmother shielded her grandchild with her own body while they both played dead.
Art Therapy-Museum Collaborations in Colombia
By Andrée Salom | February 24, 2016 | Events | International
Across American museums, art therapy programs have been developed for individuals with disabilities, addictions, physical and psychological challenges, as well as for populations receiving disaster relief, and recovering from trauma (Peacock, 2012).
Panel Presentation of Killing Time: The Chronology of Creativity
By Irene Rosner David | January 27, 2016 | About Art Therapy
When asked to represent our field and organization on this panel during the Outsider Art Fair in New York, I was both honored and challenged. For decades I have welcomed opportunities to enlighten broadly and promote our work, however this was a new audience for me – outsider artists, outsider art gallery owners, arts-in-business people. I entered this project with the assumption that I would primarily explore aspects of Outsider Art and Art Therapy that may be perceived as overlapping, yet are different. This is a relationship I have pondered in the past, particularly having seen the infamous collection of L’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Postpartum Imagery: Finding the ‘Good Enough’
By Kathryn Snyder, MA, ATR-BC, LPC | January 20, 2016 | Health Care
The postpartum period in the family life cycle is one that is fraught with ambivalence and anxiety. While a new mother’s body is flooded with the oxytocin meant to link her in love with her helpless charge, it is also, often, simultaneously flooded with the hormones of fear and worry, combined with the fogginess of sleep deprivation and the stress of learning to take care of this fragile, small human.