February 22, 2018
Leah Gipson, LCPC, ATR-BC is an assistant professor in the art therapy department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Her current research interests include womanism, black feminism, black church, and the use of cultural spaces to explore the politics of individual and social change.
She is working on several projects including: The Rectory, an Austin Neighborhood Studio Co-op for which Gipson received the Propeller Fund Award (2016); Care Sessions through the SAIC Office of Engagement at Homan Square; and DIVISIVE, a radio show Gipson co-created with Craig Harshaw and Keith Brown. Listen to a recent episode, “Are Black Women Fearless? Part 2: Lena, Lena, Leontyne.” Gipson has additionally been working with A Long Walk Home‒“a Chicago-based national non-profit with the mission to use art to educate, inspire, and mobilize young people to end violence against girls and women’”‒for the past nine years. Visit her website to learn more about Gipson’s work.
Gipson was previously active through her local chapter, the Illinois Art Therapy Association (IATA) and served on the Governmental Affairs Committee (2011) and shared a term as the IATA Conference Chair (2014). Gipson has authored two articles, “Challenging Neoliberalism and Multicultural Love in Art Therapy” and “Is Cultural Competence Enough? Deepening Social Justice Pedagogy in Art Therapy” published in Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. Additionally, she is author of a forthcoming chapter “Envisioning Black Women’s Consciousness in Art Therapy” in Talwar’s (Ed.) Art Therapy for Social Justice: Radical Intersections (in press).
When asked to share a time she felt connected to the AATA community, Gipson recalls when she met Stella Stepney, ATR-BC, LCAT during the first AATA conference she attended: “She and others on the multicultural committee over the years have provided a safe haven for emerging Black art therapy professionals and students. The leadership of the multicultural committee has had an enduring presence in AATA, making it possible for me to connect with others in the profession who have a wider commitment to social equality.”
When asked how she has benefitted from her AATA membership, Gipson reflects on a recent membership experience:
During the 2017 AATA conference my membership was instrumental in providing a platform at the Meeting of the Membership to address the concerns expressed by hundreds of people within the art therapy community. Along with Yasmine Awais, ATR-BC, ATCS, LCAT, LPC and Savneet Talwar, ATR-BC, I co-authored a resolution in that the BOD would consider its ethical responsibility to AATA members, art therapy students and clients in relation to their decision to embrace the Healing with the HeART Initiative of the U.S. Second Lady Karen Pence. As a key benefit of my membership, I was able to influence debate on the issue, vote on resolutions, and stress the importance of an uncensored, culturally informed dialogue within the professional organization that includes the political concerns of people of color.
Gipson believes that “Art therapy is effective because of people who are willing to do the work in and outside of therapy to save their own lives, despite numerous social forces that stand in their way.” Additionally, Gipson hopes to see:
A radical reconceptualization of art therapy in the future, one that understands knowledge as culturally situated, one that embraces critical studies, and one that acknowledges the usefulness of scholarly debate in disrupting the status quo. I also hope to see an outcome from the resolutions that were discussed at the 2017 conference that demonstrates an effective commitment to social justice in art therapy.
Topics of particular interest in the field include: “the cultural ideas that art therapists use to support claims that art is therapeutic; histories that have shaped the discipline; and the collective impact of the art therapy profession toward issues of social justice.”