Exhibition Statement

Introduction 

As busy college students, if there is one thing we commonly lack, it’s time for ourselves to relax and unwind. Art is not only something that we can appreciate and analyze as students, but is something that we can use as a tool for stress-relief, emotional expression, and mental wellness. During this workshop participants were introduced to art as a tool in addressing these factors and assessed the implications it had on them personally. For their final project, workshop participants were tasked with choosing the artistic medium that we worked with this semester which they felt benefited their own stress-relief, emotional expression, and/or mental wellness the best. Participants created a final project using this medium accompanied by an artist statement detailing why they found this to be the most effective medium for them, the benefits the medium had on them, and how they plan to implement the use of this medium as a tool for stress-relief, emotional expression, and/or mental wellness in the future as a busy college student. 

History & Distinction

College students are some of the most vulnerable to mental illness, and “stress is reportedly the greatest factor affecting university student's academic performance” (American College Health Association, 2019). With the inspiration of this workshop being Art Therapy and the goal being for participants to understand art as a therapeutic tool they can use in college, it was vital that participants learn the history and benefits of Art Therapy. Art Therapy was a type of therapy popularized by British Artist, Adrian Hill in the 20th century. The benefits of art in their patients were clear to psychologists; psychologists found that the use of art during therapy aided in individual expression and most importantly helped patients to better interpret their emotions and be more forthcoming in communicating with their psychologists. Throughout the workshop aspects of art therapy such as reflection before and after art, interpreting participant’s art, and the use of multiple mediums have been utilized in order to teach participants the effects of art as a therapeutic tool. Although therapy, especially specialized types such as Art Therapy, is extremely inaccessible to many in this country and in college aged students, the workshop was able to provide participants with tools using art that can aid in improving their mental wellness and stress-levels in a non-clinical setting. 

Methods

In developing this workshop, I used a lot of my prior knowledge related to Psychology and Art Therapy as a whole as these were both fields I was familiar with prior. As an Elementary Education major, many of the teaching skills that I needed in order to effectively produce and execute lessons were gained from past experiences teaching and lesson planning I have worked on throughout my courses at UMD. Following the first weeks of introduction and background on Art Therapy, each week participants were introduced to a new artistic medium that could be used as a therapeutic tool. In order to create these classes, I would research each artistic medium ahead of time in order to create my lesson plan and choose which aspects of the medium were important to discuss with participants and what activities with this medium would benefit their mental wellness the best. Resources like studies from journals detailing the effects of different mediums were extremely helpful in lesson planning and also in emphasizing the importance and relevance behind the workshop. For example, during the week focused on drawing and coloring I used a study conducted by Vennet and Serice which looked at the positive effects of coloring mandalas and free-drawing on anxiety levels; this study aided in creating my lesson plan for this week as I was able to base my lesson off of the study, providing participants with time to both use coloring sheets and free-draw and have them self-assess their stress levels and moods prior and following the activities (Vennet & Service, 2012). In order to make lessons engaging and accessible to participants the activities with each artistic medium were kept simple and it was heavily emphasized that the goals of the workshop were to use art as a therapeutic tool and experiment with the mediums in order to assess their effects, not to create the “perfect” art piece. 

Audience & Impact

The audience of my workshop were college students who often lack the time to devote to their own personal mental wellness. As this population often lacks the time and tools to improve their mental wellness and de-stress, I aimed for this workshop to be a space where participants could take the time to learn about tools and aspects of art that they could use in their daily lives in order to improve mental wellness, express themselves emotionally, and relieve stress. The workshop introduced participants to a wide variety of artistic mediums that they can use as creative tools to improve their mental wellness and relieve stress. I developed the workshop with the intention of not only providing students with the time to use these tools in class, but with the mindset that they can implement these tools in their daily lives, even in simple ways, in order to benefit themselves individually. By completing this workshop, I was not only able to fully immerse myself in and learn more about the topic of Art Therapy which I had a strong interest in prior to completing this project, but I was also able to practice the teaching skills and techniques that I have been learning throughout my time as an education major at UMD. As an artist and scholar, I feel as though I have grown a lot as a result of completing this project. I was extremely inspired to continue pursuing my career path of teaching due to the amazing and insightful participation from my students. Additionally, I was not only teaching these different mediums but even was able to assess and learn tools to use art as a form of stress-relief in my own personal life. Overally, this project has had a significant impact on the way I view my future and myself as an artist. 

References

“Home | American College Health Association (ACHA).” American College Health Association, 2019, https://www.acha.org/documents/ncha/NCHA-II_SPRING_2019_US_REFERENCE_GROUP_EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY.pdf

Renée van der Vennet & Susan Serice (2012) Can Coloring Mandalas Reduce Anxiety? A Replication Study, Art Therapy, 29:2, 87-92, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2012.680047

Acknowledgements 

Lastly, I would like to sincerely thank and acknowledge all of those who this project would not have been possible without. First and foremost, thank you to the Arts Scholars faculty and advisors Harold Burgess, Heather Bremenstuhl, and Gabrielle Robinson-Tillenburg for their unwavering support and encouragement throughout this entire process and two years in Arts Scholars; my TA, Serena Kemp for her assistance in running the workshop and providing me with a mentor to ask questions to whenever needed. Thank you to my family, friends, and professors for providing me with support, knowledge, and inspiration which aided me in completing this project. Lastly, thank you so much to the amazing participants of my workshop who never fail to show up with a smiling face, ready to discuss, learn, and contribute to the best of their abilities, inspiring me each week to show up and do better. Overall, thank you so much for this opportunity which I will always be grateful for.