Week 6

What I did:

Proposal: 2 hours

Meeting with Julie Kaplan: 1 hour

Making connections and researching art therapists and teen groups in ann arbor: 1 hour

Starting to go through the reading that Julie gave me: 1 hour

Continuing other research: 1 hour

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

This week I feel I had sort of a reality check- which I think is what I needed.

On Saturday, I did a wide search of various teen groups in Ann Arbor that seem to be focused around helping youth deal with various problems such as being bullied. I decided to email different representatives in the groups to tell them about my intentions for my project and to see if they would be able to meet with me to further discuss or to see if there is any way I would be able to work with girls in their programs. Here is a list of programs I contacted:

-It's Great to be a Girl: http://www.oami.umich.edu/precollege/igtbag.html

-The Washtenaw Youth Development Initiative: http://watt.ewashtenaw.org/news/youth_development_initiative_faq.html/youth_development_initiative_faq.html#one

-Center for Creative Growth- contacted Susan Boyes who is an art therapist/artist:http://www.centerforcreativegrowth.com/

-Michigan Association of Art Therapy: http://www.michiganarttherapy.org/

-Ann Arbor Neutral Zone:http://www.neutral-zone.org/

I received a response for a woman at the Washtenaw Youth Development Initiative who was very interested in my project and whom I am meeting with next week.

On a different note, I say this week was a reality check for a few reasons.

First of all, Hannah's notes on my proposal were very helpful and made me think. We talked about how art therapy is a huge field and a big thing to undertake. She also suggested perhaps working on a project that is already underway. We came up with the idea of using my graphic design skills to create a kit to give to teachers and programs. Hannah also thinks her friend Orli will be a great resource for me. (We are finally meeting next week, Hannah!- thank you!! :) ) I guess I walked away from this conversation a bit confused as to whether or not this kid would still involve me collected art from these girls, however I decided that this is very important for me and I would still like to do this. I am not going to call myself an art therapist, because I am not. Yet, I would like to use art to have these girls express themselves and get out their emotions. Right after I talked to Hannah, I coincidentally received an email from Susan Boyes, an art therapist at the Center for Creative Growth. She wrote:

Hi Carly,

Here’s the issue. You can work with adolescent girls and bullying and you can implement a component of art-making as a process to help them express their experience but you shouldn’t call it Art Therapy unless you are an Art Therapist. There’s an ethical issue involved here. This profession requires rigorous education, testing, certification, and licensing, including ongoing continuing education. Some art educators, artists, social workers and some counselors cross that line and shouldn’t. It’s not fair to the clients you serve to misidentify yourself or your service in this way.

FYI: do not display or publish other people’s artwork in any way without a signed release that permits you to do so! You could be sued.

I will be happy to talk to you further about this if you like. I am busy this afternoon from about 2 to 5, but otherwise available to talk.

Susan Boyes, MA, ATR-BC, LPC

Registered Art Therapist, Board Certified

Licensed Professional Counselor

This was very eye-opening. I realized that it is 100% true, I am not an art therapist, and cannot pretend to be one. It also made me aware of the legal situation of collecting these artworks from these girls, and I will need to research and think about this.

I believe that making a kit would be a concise way for me to package everything together in a well-designed way. I would also want to include art pieces from women my age to show these girls.

I found an artist who did a very similar thing. Her name is Becky Rizor. Here is the blurb about her project, which was part of the larger project: Stop Bullying Now.

Resource Type: Poster and colorables

Publisher: Queen Bee Productions

Year Published: 2004

Words Hurt poster and colorables are an important and effective addition to your school or organization's character building and anti-bullying efforts. Designed by artist Becky Rizor to be inclusive, this heartfelt rendering of the mountable poster and student coloring sheets helps bring the importance of paying attention to what we say to each other. Packets include: Poster in color, 30 letter-size colorable sheets of the drawing with black lines on durable cover stock, a resource list, and suggested uses for the materials. Becky Rizor originally created the “Words Hurt” drawing as part of a local V-Day effort to stop violence against women and girls and has adapted it to become part of school and community programs. She is a graphic artist/illustrator who was commissioned by Oak Associates Ltd. of Akron to do cartoons for Norman Schwarzkopf, Margaret Thatcher and Colin Powell.

This was helpful to see that someone has done something similar to what I hope to do.

Today, I met with Julie Kaplan. Julie works for the Center for the Child and Family and is a staff member in the group, Strong Moms Strong Girls. I talked with Julie for an hour and she was SO helpful. It was really great for me to meet with someone who has not heard anything about my project and hear their response. She seemed very receptive to my ideas and very willing to help. I learned a lot about the program, Strong Moms Strong Girls and their intentions. Their goals are obviously all similar to mine, yet it is frustrating that they already have a working program that is funded with a large staff. It is hard for me since it is just myself and it is hard to get started and form connections such as the connections they have with local Ann Arbor schools (I don't know if this makes sense). She explained that it would not really work for me to lead a workshop with the Strong Moms Strong Girls participants since they often have trouble even fitting in what they want to do with their participants. However, she is very willing to get me in touch with the teachers at the elementary schools that the program works with, and is also willing to send an email out to past participants of strong moms strong girls and tell them about my project. She is going to talk with the other staff members more and get back to me. This was definitely helpful to me since it showed me that there is definitely hope with my project. I will for sure be in touch with her and she was a great contact for me to make. She told me that the program also needed help developing their logo and identity- something I thought could also be interesting.

All in all, this week I feel I discovered a lot!

What I think I should do next:

-I am meeting with Orli finally which I am really looking forward to.

-I need to read all the information that Julie gave me (there is a lot- but it seems really interesting and helpful)

-Meet with Chana Hawkins at the Washtenaw Youth Development Initiative

-Start thinking about what exactly I would want to include in the kit and some design themes- I need to think of key words!