Healing Through Art
Can art heal?
In my personal experience, making art has always been tied to feeling whole. Some of my earliest memories involve creating, always with a feeling of joy, and as an adult, art is still what I turn to when I need to process intense feelings. The act of making art is undoubtedly a healing one for me.
As a teacher, I’ve seen powerful things happen through art. Years ago, I became a TAB believer in my elementary classroom on the first day I tried teaching with centers. I was so worried there would be chaos when my fifth grade class of 38 walked in the door, but instead, I saw excitement, joy, and deep engagement. Such deep engagement, in fact, that I almost didn't realize one student was in the room.
I’d taught Darius for years. He didn't really love art but he did what I asked and was kind and funny. He also had a loud voice and loved to talk to friends, so because I didn't hear him that day I thought he was absent. Instead, he was sitting alone, silently engaged in folding a delicate, beautiful paper sculpture - something I had never taught him. When I stopped to marvel at the transformation of this student who had never once seemed invested in art, I saw joy and pride on his face and I knew I could never go back to the way things were before.
Two years later, in a different elementary classroom, a third-grader named Austin started building something with cardboard, also quiet, also alone. He worked for weeks and weeks before it was clear what he was making - a functional, wearable knight’s helmet. By the time he started on the breastplate he had at least two dedicated helpers, which was just as amazing as the full suit of armor he and his team eventually made. Austin was autistic and I’d watched him struggle to make friends for years. He found both spaces for his big ideas and friends to share them with at the sculpture center.
Last year, at the high school where I now teach, and in the midst of the pandemic, all my students were alone, isolated, and attending class via computer. Four of them, with different talents, found each other when I put them in a breakout room together. They ended up writing, making costumes, filming, composing music for, editing, and promoting a film. They spent countless hours both during and outside of class creating art together because they had time and space to explore what they loved and what they each uniquely knew how to do, together.
Where I see healing in art is in the creative community we build, in establishing a space where everyone's ideas are valuable (ideas that are way bigger than any project I could dream up!), where learners are invited to bring outside skills and knowledge into the studio, and in a curriculum that welcomes and celebrates identity, seeing each individual for who they are.
When we are able to create spaces like this for students, I believe art can be a force for healing, especially in opposition to all the things in schools that do not value the identity. How we can create these spaces? How can we make sure we are building structures that make every student feel welcome and accepted? That’s the work of right now.
Healing Through Art is the theme of this year’s TAB/MassArt Institute.