The healing power of art

Programs help children learn, grow through self-expression

STEPHANIE N. HENSCHEL
Staff Writer

A family at a local homeless shelter participates in the Strengthening Families Through the Arts program at Free Arts of Arizona. Due to confidentiality concerns, they cannot be identified. Photo courtesy of Free Arts of Arizona

When children have little means to properly express how they feel, they tend to act out, or, in some cases, withdraw.

Several organizations in the Valley offer ways to get to the bottom of that problem.

The idea is this: Give children who come from low-income families, children with serious illnesses or children from abusive, neglectful situations a chance to learn, grow and often times heal, by expressing themselves through art.

Healing art
According to Terry J. Ratner, a registered nurse and writer, arts programs provide "a forum where children can identify their unique fears, anxieties and thoughts through the use of expressive and cultural arts."

It was based on that idea that Ratner proposed a program for children undergoing dialysis at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital. The "Arts and Healing" program - which began in January 2004 - allows those juvenile patients an opportunity to deal with the major fears and anxieties surrounding their treatment and condition.

Ratner says the patients were used to sitting and watching television during treatment. "Now they're excited," she says. "It took their mind off (the treatments) and (they were able to) express themselves through art."

Ratner tells the story of one 13-year-old boy who would always draw himself as an adult. "This is how he saw himself," Ratner says of the seriously ill youth. "This is what he wanted." Another young patient would cry whenever he had his treatments.

"When I started coming, he stopped that," she says. "He had something else to dwell on."

The art projects also gave the children a way to say what they were thinking without really saying it. For example, one major theme Ratner discovered in a lot of the pieces created by the patients was food. Due to the nature of their illnesses, most of the children are on restricted diets, which don't allow for all the junk food most children crave. The children could say in their artwork what they were missing without actually verbalizing it.

At-risk children
The Arizona Jewish Theatre Company has a program geared toward at-risk fourth- and fifth-grade students from the Phoenix Elementary School District. In that area, about 98 percent of the students participate in the free lunch program. For a majority of those students, English is their second language.

The after-school program began in January 2004, after Jocelyn Hanson, director of arts education at the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, wrote a federal grant proposal for the 21st Century Community Learning Grant, a grant created by the government under the No Child Left Behind Act. The proposal earned Hanson and the partnering organizations the grant money needed to fund the program.

The theater group partnered with nine other local arts organizations to host about 30 children per semester from each of the elementary schools in the district. During the spring semester, students from Herrera Elementary participated at AJTC, and in the fall, students came from Bethune Elementary.

AJTC production director Janet Arnold says the changes she has seen in the children who have participated are enormous.

The theory behind the program, according to Arnold, is that the arts programs will help boost the students' interest in academics.

"Anything you do to help self-esteem is going to help academics," Arnold says.

In the "on-camera" class at AJTC, students learn about directing, producing and acting. This previous semester, the students created a public service announcement for St. Vincent De Paul's Dental Clinic. It will begin airing on locally this month.

It's a great feeling for the students to be able to see what they've done, Arnold explains. Last semester, the students at Herrera Elementary created a PSA for Arizona Animal Welfare League.

At the end of this past semester, students and families at the school got to see "Bethune Live," a show created by and featuring the students in the program. According to Arnold, the school "was blown away at how many families attended."

But unfortunately, as with many arts programs, the funding will run out in two years. Arnold hopes AJTC and the other participating arts organizations can drum up enough funding to keep the 15-week program for those "kids with great potential."

Self-empowerment
Abused, neglected and homeless children also benefit from the arts. Free Arts of Arizona, a nonprofit organization, aims to provide healing through art to those children, while helping build self-esteem and social skills.

"Arts can be very powerful in healing," says Susan L. Paull, program director at Free Arts. "We're giving them lots of opportunities for self-expression."

The organization trains volunteers to go to area homeless shelters, group homes and some schoolsand provide various arts classes, such as dancing, music and more. The mentoring program partners volunteers with students for 20 weeks - an attempt to create a semblance of stability.

"It's a really powerful program," Paull says.

Paull explained that the program is partly based on the ideas behind dance movement therapy - that the "nonverbal modalities will help connect them with their whole body.

"We've kind of taken the theories behind that and trained our volunteers to bring that to the child," Paull says. "The arts can be an area where these children can be successful."

By tapping into the creative side, they can say things "not so easily said.

"It opens up an area that, for children, is much easier for them to express," she says. "They feel good by what they do. They feel empowered by it."

And it's not just another arts and crafts class.

"They're going in with an intention," she says. The program is designed so each session is self-contained, meaning it's not a deep therapy session. "We're not leaving the kids so they're raw and open."

These programs, and others like them, can help neglected, homeless, and at-risk children overcome the obstacles set in front of them. Through programs like these, the children of today are more prepared to be the adults of tomorrow.

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