Partners in Arts Participation
Partners in Arts Participation
The Healing Through the Arts Initiative will inspire creative methods of coping with illness by removing barriers and increasing opportunities for people with cancer to participate in the arts.
Judson Bemis Jr., Actor, arts administrator, founder and principal of Clere Consulting. Secretary, Minnesota State Arts Board., Ardell Brede, Mayor of Rochester, elected 2002., Peggy Burnet, Businesswoman, art collector, and community volunteer. Chair of the Nominating Committee, Smithsonian National Board. Trustee, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Vice Chair, Minnesota State Arts Board., Michael Charron, Dean of the School of the Arts, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. Vice Chair, Minnesota State Arts Board., Sean Dowse, Executive director, Sheldon Theatre. Board member for Minnesota Music Coalition, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, and Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies., John Gunyou, City manager, Minnetonka., Ellen McInnis, Director of Twin Cities government relations, Wells Fargo. Member of Bottineau Boulevard Partnership. Chair, Minnesota State Arts Board., Pamela Perri, Executive vice president, Builders Association of Minnesota., Margaret Rapp, Former educator, Saint Paul Academy and Summit School. Officer at-large, Minnesota State Arts Board., Anton Treuer, Professor of Ojibwe, Bemidji State University.
ACHF Arts Access
Partnerships are developed between social service organizations and arts organizations to better serve underserved communities. More Minnesotans are able to participate in the arts.
Art therapy at the Cancer Care Research Center was increased from 1x -2x per month. Serving on average ten people/month. This allowed patients participating to receive more frequent follow up, care and instruction in the arts. Art therapy is a safe place where the use of arts can be paired with emotional and mental health care. We have created a supportive environment that uses the arts as part of the healing and recovery process in cancer. The arts serve to help patients develop new coping skills that reduce stress and anxiety leading to an improved recovery and future prevention of chronic illness. Because of this change the individual participation was more consistent, deeper relationships were formed and greater progress in healing reported. We used an informal evaluation survey with each patient to assess their experience with the art therapy sessions. 100% of patients surveyed reported a positive experience by participating in the arts and would consider participating in similar experiences in the future. The barriers were identified by our art therapist who provides the direct service to patients. The most consistent barrier we face is to engage the public in participating in the art therapy sessions. Art can be intimidating for some people as they fear not being adequate to complete a project. We are not able to fully mitigate the barriers as these are an ongoing challenge with the public; however we learn new strategies that help us better connect the message we are trying communicate. We have developed a promotional video that we are using on our organizations website and on iPads that can be viewed by patients in the waiting room. The promotional video gives an excellent definition of art therapy and its benefits. It also includes a testimonial by a patient who has benefited from incorporating arts into her life and healing process. We continue to work with Springboard for the Arts, A Center for the Arts, and Mill Street Residence to identify new opportunities for artists to participate in programming through Lake Region Healthcare. These organizations use various artists and have been a great resource to our facility in developing new ideas and connecting to a particular artist for service. Several artists who have helped develop art kits to be used by chemotherapy patients and/or their family members has allowed us to create a pool of artists to be called upon for future projects and services. Some of those artists have returned to do more art kits and share their expertise in our various support groups.
Other, local or private