ARTSblog

Alie Wickham

It’s been awhile since a post has gone up.  I apologize for that, however, this delay in posting is not just from my lack of time, but also from my lack of motivation to continue these posts.  I am going to be frank and honest with all of you: These Green Paper posts can ONLY make a difference with EVERYONE’S help!! This means you! I could suggest improvements, and attempt to facilitate discussions as much as I want – I love talking about the arts in healthcare, it’s my passion! However, how are we supposed to grow and be innovative thinkers as a field without the input of all of you? Ladies and gentlemen, artists and healthcare providers, students and professionals, it is now your time to step up…do you want me to keep writing and suggesting topics of discussion? PLEASE RESPOND! Thank you!

Now for the post…

The following statement comes from the “Moving Forward” section of the Arts in Healthcare Green Paper:

Arts in healthcare is steadily moving forward. Increasingly, healthcare administrators are not only welcoming but also financially supporting arts programming in their institutions. Medical and nursing schools see the value in incorporating arts in healthcare courses or content to help their students develop essential skills such as observation and communication. Arts institutions, schools, and colleges are partnering with healthcare organizations to provide arts programming and health promotion experiences in community settings. Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Download (Duration: 6:44 — 7.7MB)

Here’s the second half of an interview between Alie Wickham and Mike Gagliardo, the ambassadors for the two green paper topics: Arts in Healthcare and Strings. Alie and Mike discuss how the green papers have approached a vision of the future.

The first half of their interview can be found here.

Michelle Dean

With the emphasis nationwide on access to health care for everyone, art therapists, creative arts therapists and other arts professionals need work to be included in the group of defined providers in national and local health care solutions. In the US, there are five major mental health professions that have occupational regulations, including: psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, counselors, and social workers. Lack of occupational regulations for art therapists in most states creates a challenge for inclusion in healthcare reform and insurance reimbursement.

Laura Greenstone, long-time, legislative advocate for art therapy, has worked tirelessly in her role as The Chair (and now Past Chair) of The National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations (NCCATA). As NCCATA Chair, Laura joined the National Arts in Healthcare Advisory Council, which was initiated by the Americans for The Arts, The Society for the Arts in Healthcare, The American Music Therapy Association, and other national arts organizations. The main task of the Advisory Council has been to create issue briefs for Arts Advocacy Day – an advocacy event held each year in DC where over 80 arts organizations and arts advocates gather to lobby in Congress. One can find the latest issue brief on Arts in Healthcare listed here: http://artsusa.org/get_involved/advocacy/aad/issue_briefs/2010/advocacy_issuebrief_011.asp

ARTS IN HEALTHCARE, is a multidisciplinary field dedicated to improving the healthcare experience for patients, families, and caregivers. This rapidly growing field integrates the arts, including literary, performing, visual arts and design, into a wide variety of healthcare settings for therapeutic, educational, and expressive purposes.  Read the rest of this entry »

Alie Wickham

Hey Bloggers!!

Alright – the field of Arts in Healthcare needs your help!! Here is the deal:

The Society for the Arts in Healthcare (the international “umbrella” organization for our field) is in the running for a $25,000 Pepsi Refresh grant – which is AWESOME!! However, we (meaning the Society) cannot get this grant alone.  We need EVERYONE’S help. The best part is that getting involved is simple – all you have to do is VOTE! So, how do you do this?? Simply follow the directions at http://www.refresheverything.com/artsinhealthcare – and….VOTE!!!!

Now I am sure you are wondering what this grant is for, right?

Artist Registry: How would you rather spend your time in a hospital—anxiously staring at drab walls or calming your nerves with vibrant art and creative activities? The answer is obvious, especially for our members who know the healing power of art. The Society’s new artist registry will connect hospitals with artists to enhance the patient experience, while supporting artist employment and promotion.

Simply – this grant will bring art into the healthcare environment and provide artists with more job opportunities.  What could be better than that?? Actually getting the grant to do it! So, VOTE VOTE VOTE – EVERYDAY!!!!

Thanks everyone – happy creating!!!

I started out as a band kid. While my parents started me on piano lessons when I was in the 3rd grade, and I found it to be interesting (as long as I got to play what I wanted to play!), I think my interest in music was really sparked when I started playing the trumpet in the school band in the 5th grade. By the time I got to middle school, I was hooked, and was headed down that path of musical obsession – if there was a school group or a church or a wedding that needed a trumpet over the next six years, I was the go-to guy.

So how did I get involved with strings? It’s really simply – I had an instrumental music teacher in middle school who wasn’t just a band guy. He also conducted the school’s orchestra. That’s correct – not the school’s string class – the school’s ORCHESTRA. When I was in middle school, for two years, I played trumpet in a full orchestra. When I got to high school, we had TWO full orchestras, PLUS a pit orchestra for the annual school musical, where we played shows like “South Pacific” and “My Fair Lady.”  Read the rest of this entry »

In response to “Leadership is a Verb – so Act on it!”, Karin writes, “We need to remember that these industries need liaisons who are empathetic and understanding of both sides of the coin and can speak to both communities.”

Now, I believe I know which two communities Karin is referring to.  However, Karin, if you read this and I am incorrect, please feel free to let me know.  The two communities that come to my mind from this response are:

1) Arts   2) Healthcare

It is true – the leaders of our field must understand both sides, equally, and have similar empathy for each of them.  The arts in healthcare are most impacting when they work as a compliment for one another. Just like in arts in education – they are most impacting when the artists understand what the educators need, and vice versa. Or with the Public Voice in Arts Advocacy – how can we even begin to describe the importance of the arts to politicians if we don’t first allow the artists to understand the “behind-the-scenes” of politics – I’m sure there is a bulk of information in politics that we never hear.  Read the rest of this entry »

Before we leap into the future visions of art therapy, I am going to spend a little time developing some ideas about the profession and the work itself, which in my opinion are not always one and the same. I am frequently questioned about what art therapy is and how it works. Sure, I have a rote answer I can give on the fly – a 30-second response for people who only offer a half-cocked ear. But I am not going to write about that here.

Reducing the practice of art therapy (and for that matter many things) to sound-bite size pieces of information robs the work of its integrity and diminishes the complexities of process and of people’s lives. Oversimplifications of a subject can dumb it down to the point of being meaningless. What I want to do is convey the depth, significance, and creative life-enhancing power of the work, and the advantages and limitations of this very diverse profession. Read the rest of this entry »

Some people may argue that the holiday season is really the busiest time of the year, but ask a teacher, and they’re likely to tell you a different story.  And ask a music teacher, and…well, ask a music teacher if you can catch one right now.

You see, things are a little different for music teachers.  Not to take anything away from educators in any other subject, mind you, but things are a little different for those of us in the music profession.  Like any other teacher, we’re thinking about the end of the year.  That means, first and foremost, performances.  Every ensemble has its own end-of-the-year concert to present.  And with these concerts come things like senior soloists and special honors and traditional tributes.  Plus, there are the awards banquets and the honor ceremonies and the special community events that come at the end of the school year, and each would not be complete without some kind of musical accompaniment – provided, of course, by the school choir or brass ensemble or string quartet, led by the capable and (by this time of year) completely exhausted director.

Read the rest of this entry »

In her green paper on community development in the arts, Maryo grounds her tips in the idea that the past helps give context to the present and future. However, an equally important way to contextualize one’s individual project is within the collective body of community arts work being done currently. Unfortunately, getting a handle on the amorphous blob that is “The Field of Community Development in the Arts” is an ever- increasing challenge, particularly given the rapid changes in the way that we store and share information.

Now, I know that as a young professional, I’m supposed to embrace technologies of all kinds and thank the online world for providing 24-hour, instantaneous information. But, sometimes (just sometimes) combing through 29+ pages of  Google search results makes me a little bit nostalgic for the days when the definitive publications on subject W were X, Y, and Z.

That was it.

No thousands of web pages, each containing a kernel of pertinent or significant information. No following trails of links to “x marks the spot” (i.e. that document that’s exactly what you were looking for), only to see the eternally-helpful “Page Not Found!” flash across your computer screen where the jackpot should have been buried.

Alas, those days of old-book smell and the whisper of (paper) pages under fingertips are dwindling and the challenge of finding substantive, legitimate information continues to grow.

Are you ready for slightly-embarrassing confession #2? Read the rest of this entry »

Over the next several months it is my intention to use the Green Paper document as a springboard for discussion regarding the vision for the future of the art therapy profession; obstacles to achieving that vision; and strategies to overcome those obstacles and make that vision a reality. I anticipate the topics will garner lively discussion and much feedback. It is my personal vision that this blog be a welcoming venue for dialog and a platform for exchanging ideas and connection. My goal includes relaying information about art therapy, current trends, and future opportunities, including input from art therapists practicing around the country and possibly the globe.  Read the rest of this entry »

Community Arts Education is such a diverse field. As I stated in my last blog you can find some form of community arts provider just about anywhere. Some organizations have been around hundreds of years and produce conservatory level musicians. Some organizations have only been around a few years and serve inner city children through visual arts programs. Although there appears to be differing views on what is community arts education I think we can find more commonalities between community arts providers.

The Community Arts Education Green Paper states: “Increasing lifelong learning opportunities in the arts requires that we animate and foster Americans’ desire to get involved with activities that provide them with a sense of personal fulfillment and community connection.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I listened in on a radio interview on WNYC in New York that dove into whether or not states should be funding the arts. The interview featured Nina Ozlu-Tunceli, chief counsel of government and public affairs at Americans for the Arts, and Nick Gillespie, editor in chief of Reason.com and Reason.tv.

To listen to the full interview please click here – http://beta.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/2010/apr/27/

While I’ll spare you all from my personal opinions on the interview, I will say that it sparked some interest about messaging. In the interview you hear Nina talk about the national economic impact, how grant dollars leverage increased investment, as well as how grant funding helps provide affordable access to the arts for citizens.

Nina did a great job of putting forth the national argument but, my question to all of you is: What is your argument in support of arts funding? If you were in an elevator with the chair of your state’s appropriations committee, what would you say? Read the rest of this entry »

In setting the tone and structure of my posts about the future of community arts, I want stress how important your thoughts are in fueling discussion by building off of Alie Wickham’s immediate response to the Future of Community Development in the Arts Green Paper, which said:

I’m responding to the line after this, “What do you think?” According to many of the “tips” I read in the paper, I believe many of them will continue to stay constant and true – their context will adapt according to the time we are living in. However, I feel it would be highly interesting to bring up the point that it wouldn’t hurt for each of us to help our prospective organizations to develop similar tips for each of our fields that we believe will stay MOST constant and true. Not only will these tips include long and short-term goals – something the green paper emphasized in one tip – but goals that will continue to stay true and relevant in the present and future. More than likely, these tips will develop from comparing there relevance to the past, as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I attended the “City as a Stage: Placemaking for the Performing Arts” convening presented by the Music Center/Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County.  This was the second gathering in a series of three using arts and culture as a lens for re-imagining cities.  A cross-disciplinary group of civic, economic, health and philanthropic leaders gather to craft a new interpretation of urban vitality for the next decade.

Two wonderful examples of the “city as stage” were given: Barnaby Evans’ Waterfire, a series of 100 bonfires that burn on the surface of three rivers in downtown Providence and are accompanied by live music and performance on a biweekly basis from April through October. On the other coast, the Los Angeles County Music Center’s Active Arts Program takes a “do-it-yourself” approach with dance, instrumental and vocal music, and storytelling programs on the plaza where participants actively engage in these art forms.  Both projects move the arts out of the four walls and stages of performing arts centers and more importantly reclaim public space—in these two cases, the streets of downtown Providence and the plaza of the Los Angeles County Music Center and democratize participation in the arts. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sitting in the auditorium at Cullman High School in Cullman, Alabama, while over 100 middle and high school musicians rehearse on stage.  There are wind, brass, and percussion players; a full choir; drums, guitar, and bass; and of course, the string section.  Right now Mark Wood, formerly of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and Laura Kaye are putting the group though its paces.  They are cranking out an energetic version of “Born to Be Wild,” the piece that will close the first half of tonight’s performance.  Everyone is involved.  Everyone is engaged. 

I’m here because the orchestra director at Cullman Middle and High Schools asked me to bring my students to help support her young orchestra program.  We have worked with Mark several times in the past, and we always have a great time performing with him.  When we received the call, we jumped at the opportunity.  In the process, our musicians have had the opportunity to meet other players who share the common interest – a love of making music.  At the end of the night, when the final chord has sounded, and the thunderous applause had faded, my students will have met new friends, new connections, who share this common bond.  Read the rest of this entry »