THE VALUE OF ART IN HEALING

NewTown Reaches for the Arts in Their Search for Healing(click)

Newton Uses Art for Healing                                        from google image for educational purposes only

It has been long known that the arts are powerful healers.

As far back as ancient Greeks music and art were used in healing, as well as positive thought, in Asclepion's (hospitals). During the time I lived in Turkey I visited the ruins of an Asclepion in Bergama. It was fascinating to hear how the sound of water, music, art and positive words were used to heal those with physical and mental conditions. I walked down a stone tunnel that had portals cut above and there the doctors would call out positive words for their patients below! I was so enamored that what I deemed as progressive medical thought was born centuries ago.
NewTown, Connecticut experienced one of the worst acts of violence this country has known with the murder of 20 young children and 6 adults.  A mentally deranged young man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary and proceeded to massacre innocent young children and their teachers in a senseless act of violence.  The parents, families and community have continued to struggle to with this loss in the aftermath of the shootings.  The community has reached out to the arts for healing and it seems to be working.  Comments from a community post are listed below.

"Every day we see individuals come into our Healing NewTown arts space to gather, reflect, share and look for support," said Jennifer Johnston, a lifelong NewTown resident and chairwoman of the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission. "We are really seeing signs of growth in these children through the artwork they have been creating. Each project is unique and helpful to them."

"Every day we see individuals come into our Healing NewTown arts space to gather, reflect, share and look for support," said Jennifer Johnston, a lifelong Newtown resident and chairwoman of the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission. "We are really seeing signs of growth in these children through the artwork they have been creating. Each project is unique and helpful to them."

"There is real healing when the community comes together," said Jennifer Rogers, NCAC's vice-chairman and a member of the Healing Newtown team. "The arts help you process your emotions when you can't talk about it, when it's just too hard to say what's on your mind."

Comments posted by  Katie O'Conner in News Around Town, NewTown, Connecticut

Art lets us express our feelings in a way that words cannot. We can communicate complex feelings that escape us in our conscious  mind.   

The Healing Nature of the Arts

Recently I came across two different sites that had to do with partnerships in the arts and health care. I have a close friend who is an art therapist and has worked in that capacity within the public schools and now with the Leepa Ratner Museum.  The data for positive effect on health and the arts is tremendous.  As artists we know how the arts benefit us personally by self expression, a meditative state and connecting with others.  The you tube site I will provide below is used by the Mississippi State Mental Hospital in a healing program with patients.  Just recently, my hometown of Tampa, Florida, recently published a health care and arts partnership program.  Where ever you live, where ever you practice art, or wherever you take art classes consider bonding the arts with healing for others!

Quotes From Frida Kahlo's Diary

One of the fascinating things I read about Frida Kahlo(please click) was that her biography was as interesting as her paintings.  If you have not see the film about her life or read her biography they are so interesting.  Her tumultuous life with artist Diego Rivera is in itself worthy of a book besides the horrible physical conditions that she lived with daily after the bus accident.  Art became therapy to her and an escape.  Here are a few of quotes that I loved from her diary. 


I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my 
head without any other consideration.


I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows. But now the damned things have learned to swim ,and now decency and good behavior weary me.




I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you. 


My painting carries with it the message of pain.

Frida Kahlo/Self Portrait from google image

― Frida Kahlo