In total, they raised $500 to benefit kids! Thank you Marci Knutsen and the staff.

Art Therapist and Board Member, Helena Hillinga Haas, started the Healing Art Workshop out by reviewing why we were there and hearing what the students had done since they received their Make Yer Mark workbooks at our first visit. Staff members Steffanie Lorig and Nancy Stillger were also present, along with volunteer Marlaine Gray. We were also privileged to have Jamie Wheeler from Reel Grrls come and film the experience.

Ms. Haas asked them to do a page entitled “How are You?” where they did some coloring and writing with prompt questions such as “What’s on your mind?”, “Is there anything you want to talk about?”, and “When you are sad, how can other people help you?” Healing music was played while the kids dove into the process. One boy was so immersed in the exercise that he propped himself on his knees so he could get closer to his work.

After sharing and talking about how feelings can change day-by-day Ms. Haas and Ms. Lorig showed them how to create mandalas on black paper, representing how they felt today using lines, shapes and colors. “Mandala” is a Sanskrit word meaning “circle.” In art therapy, the making of a balanced message about yourself is helpful in that it is both soothing and can be revealing about your inner thoughts and feelings. These mandalas answer the question “How Are You?”

When asked if anyone would like to do another, the majority of the class shot up their hands enthusiastically!

The workshop culminated with the entire class laying their mandalas on the floor adjacent to each other. The kids gathered around, taking in this powerful testament that celebrated each of them as unique, caring and creative individuals.

The class will decide what will be most meaningful for them to do with their mandalas. Art with Heart provided a heart shaped box that they could decorate and use to keep the mandalas in.

One gal wrote down in her book, “Art with Heart has helped me so much. All those worries seem to be gone…”

Thanks to the donors that made the project possible, the children’s hearts are on their way to healing from their devastating loss. We felt honored and touched to be part of the healing of this dynamic and hopeful group of kids. One of the students asked if we could return “every Tuesday and Thursday!” When we replied that, sadly, that would not be possible, she inquired, “How about Monday and Friday then!?”

TO SEE MORE PHOTOS FROM THIS DAY, PLEASE VISIT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE!

They contacted us late last year to ask if we would consult on the artistic expression portion of their “Healing Arts Toolkit” project, which was piloted last month in the Philippines. Because both organizations understand and value supporting trauma recovery through creative expression, we were thrilled to collaborate.

Art with Heart was able to advise as they developed their training curriculum, which is based in expressive arts interventions and provides a unique opportunity for trauma work in non-Western cultures where talk therapy may be considered less appropriate or helpful. The kit helps those who are traumatized develop core skills such as emotional security, identity development, and healthy interpersonal relationships.

Arts Aftercare’s Arts Therapy Toolkit Coordinator, Lacie Morrison, is also a Mental Health Therapist who has been involved in anti-trafficking work for the past five years. She was joined by 24 different trainees from 5 different aftercare facilities, as well as local photographer John Keatley, who traveled with the group to document their first trip and use of the Toolkit.

Says John, “My intent…was to help spread the word about the exploitation of women and children which is going on all around us. Hopefully by sharing these images and stories, others might feel inclined to get involved in the fight and healing process.”

When led through Picture Journaling and “How Others See Me” exercise (adapted from our Chill & Spill activity book), the women were eager to receive their journals and would have been happy to decorate the front covers for the whole day.

During the activity, they asked, “How do you draw strength? How do you draw sadness?” The facilitators showed their own work as examples, to give some ideas, and they completed the activity and shared their ideas with each other as well.

The facilitator chose two prompts from the curriculum (also informed by our Chill & Spill book) – Decide what color each feeling might be, and Complete the sentences I like, I want, I need,
I feel, I am.

One woman remarked, “It’s nice to return to being a child” and the others agreed, commenting on how few chances they’d had to just sit and color when they were kids.

Lacie watched the first workshop in the village unfold, and commented later, “I sat there at my table with tears in my eyes as I realized it was happening – beauty and healing through the arts. The simplicity of the things I had written, the tools we had brought together and what felt to me like very basic skills we were offering, were providing an outlet for emotions to be expressed.

“I am eager to bring all that I learned into the further development of the Toolkit, and I already have plans for making the training better. And yet, that moment sitting there listening to those women was profound, because I understood something important. The Toolkit is already working.”

Last year’s GiveBIG event raised $4.1 million for nonprofit organizations in 17 hours. Help make this year’s GiveBIG even better and donate to Art with Heart to help children!

Owned by Tacoma native Randy Tei and his wife Lynn Kelly, the restaurant is managed by Executive Chef Nick Musser and is known for its upscale comfort food.

The party, which was held on April 2, included an auction of some of the eclectic art that had adorned the restaurant for years, including work by locals Mark Tobey, Gwen Knight and Martin Blank. Between the entry fee, the sale of glass art and a portion of the proceeds from the auction, they donated $4,442 to help us help kids! Thank you to everyone who supported this wonderful event!

Anthony’s sister, Gloria, passed away four years earlier after a battle with cancer, and his lovely older sister, Maria – also a student at the school – spoke at Art with Heart’s Color of Hope Benefit Breakfast in 2010. Anthony had been a Cub Scout, played soccer and was on the wrestling team.

Their teacher had told the kids that we were coming to help them use art to help them express what was in their hearts, and they welcomed us with open arms. She told us that she doesn’t often have the opportunity to use art in the classroom, so when the kids saw the markers and other art supplies that we unloaded, they cheered. Maria joined us and shared with the younger students how Art with Heart had helped her when she was having a hard time through the book Magnificent Marvelous Me.

Art Therapist and Board Member, Helena Hillinga Haas, introduced the class to a special workbook we put together for the class which coaxes kids through various prompts about feelings. After they were invited to personalized their books with their names and dedicated the book to the person of their choice, Ms. Haas had the students turn to one particular page, which features the faces of 12 different animals, each with a different expression on their faces. The kids labeled what they thought each animal was feeling and began coloring.

I am always fascinated with how some markers and a little direction can engage even the squirmiest kids. All around the classroom, heads were down, and the students were engrossed in the project. Music helped focus them, and the children sang along with “Amp’s Tunes” that the teacher played. Some of the children (as well as the adults in the room) became teary-eyed as they colored.

Ms. Haas then asked the kids to chose one of the emotions that they themselves had felt recently and gave them modeling clay to create a three-dimensional object representing that feeling. As soon as the clay was out of the wrappers, they began to mold, shape, and even color it. The use of clay has been found to be therapeutic in and of itself and has the effect of physically reducing stress and anxiety, allowing the kids to manipulate and manage their feelings.

At the end of the session, Ms. Haas asked the students if anyone wanted to share their art with the class. Hands shot up everywhere. One child showed the clay snail he made and said, “This is a happy snail. He’s happy because good things happen – just like what’s happening today.” Another child shared the bluebird she  molded and said that her bird was happy because she had wings to fly above things. The student seated next to her said that he had made a bull and that it was angry. Another shared that she had created a confused cow. “Why do you think it’s confused?” Ms. Haas asked. “Because it doesn’t know how it feels…” Ms. Haas was able to guide the discussion to talk about how feelings are like that…sometimes you understand them and sometimes you don’t, and art helps us sort through it all.

One shy girl raised her hand and asked if she could read what she had written. She read aloud, “This Art with Heart organization helps people with their feelings – like [when] someone passes away (like Anthony…we miss him a whole lot). And that’s why Art with Heart came to our school and our classroom… Without Art with Heart, nobody would be this happy.”

Thank you to the teacher, the parents, and to our volunteers who helped make today’s workshop so meaningful and special. Thank you to Helena Hillinga Haas who led the workshop, Megan Beck who donated the printing of the books, Jill Beagles who assisted and kept everything moving smoothly, Maria who shared her experience with the class, and to Nancy Stillger who helped behind the scenes to bring together all the moving parts. But most especially, thank you to our donors who equip us with the ability to meet needs like this in the community.

Anali wrote to us yesterday from Texas after using the Magnificent Marvelous Me book…

Thank you to our donors who helped put this healing book into the hands of children like her!

Both organizations are happy with the result, as Joan Cole Duffell, Committee for Children’s executive director, attests: “Art with Heart has done it again! Their latest edition of Magnificent Marvelous Me! will help kids develop the self-understanding and emotional awareness they need to get through challenging times and come out of them more resilient and in possession of valuable coping skills for future challenges. And all the fun illustrations and engaging activities are just plain cool!”

Read all about the re-launch in Committee for Children’s press release.

Thank you Committee for Children for helping us reach even more elementary school children!

We are excited to be offering a wonderful opportunity to work directly with our professional event planners behind the scenes as an intern for the upcoming Color of Hope Benefit Breakfast in October. Check out the skill set required and let us know if this is YOU!

Required Skills:

1. Able to follow instructions and anticipate needs and maintain an efficient work ethic
2. Task oriented, works well independently to finish assigned duties in a timely manner often under tight timeline constraints
3. Familiar with Word, Excel, Power Point, Google Docs and also basic printers operations
4. Easily learns new programs
5. Supplying own laptop would be ideal in order to work from Google documents off site
6. Able to craft professional e-mails in order to communicate with staff, contractual team and potential event guests and supporters
7. Able to comfortably conduct professionally executed phone conversations
8. Comfortable working with, and for several individuals
9. Is able to present a level of professionalism in the office, over the phone and via e-mail.

Duties

1. Assist with mailings: initial edits, printing, collating, stuffing, sorting by zip for non-profit mailers
2. Personal phone/e-mail follow-up: calling potential sponsors to follow-up on sponsorship mailings, assist with post phone call follow-up e-mails
3. Available for pre-event work parties dates TBD
4. Errands: as needed – must have dependable transportation and available to be at either Art with Heart office location (currently located in Rainier Valley) and the Larsen-Brennan Office in Queen Anne

If this describes you and is the kind of experience you are looking for on your resume, please contact info@artwithheart.org today!