LONDON.- West Sussex Record Office and Outside In have been awarded a grant from the Wellcome Trust of £46,023 to preserve an archive which offers a rare insight into the use of art therapy as a form of treatment.

Outside In is a charity which supports artists who find it difficult to access the art world for reasons including health, disability, isolation or social circumstance.

 

The Vawdrey Archive comprises approximately 194 paintings produced by patients in art therapy sessions run by Dr Brian Vawdrey between 1951 to 1971 and a copy of Vawdrey’s illustrated thesis, ‘Art in Analysis’.

The archive is an unusual record of early art therapy work which provides an important insight into the therapeutic process and has the potential to offer a unique perspective on the development of art therapy as a discipline.

This funding will enable the Record Office, in partnership with Outside In, to catalogue, preserve, and digitise this archive, eventually making the catalogue and digitised images available online.

A series of consultation sessions involving Outside In artists who have had lived experience of mental health issues will enhance and enrich the catalogue – a new and innovative way of approaching medical and hospital archives.

Debbie Kennard, West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for Safer, Stronger Communities, said: “Our Record Office does an amazing job when it comes to preserving and archiving unique collections such as these.”

Wendy Walker, County Archivist at West Sussex Record Office said: “This funding will enable us to preserve a unique archive that will provide a fascinating insight into the role of art therapy at a critical stage in the understanding of mental health in the 1950s and 1960s.

“I am delighted that we will be able to explore this archive with Outside In, contemporary artists, academic colleagues and health care professionals and develop innovative ways to make it accessible to new audiences today.

“We are extremely grateful to the Wellcome Trust for all of their support in making this happen”.

Marc Steene, Director of Outside In, said: “Outside In is extremely excited to be working with the West Sussex Record Office on this highly innovative project.

“Enabling Outside In artists, with a lived experience of mental health issues, to be given the opportunity to guide and be consulted in the archiving of this incredibly fragile and rare collection of patient art work will provide important learning for all.

“We are also delighted to continue our relationship with the Wellcome Trust and thank them for their support with this project.”

LINK:  Study shows that art making lowers the impact of stress in young and older participants.

Interview link with Prof. Turtel Onli M.A.A.T.

Urban/ Clinical Art Therapy interview link on Sound Cloud

I often add toys to my sessions.  They open pathways of insightful spontaneous expressions on the parts of the participants during and after the actual art making segment of our process.

 For International Peace Day, Prof. Onli led a free art work-shop based on "Peace" as the theme at the Ogelsby Elementary School on Chicago's energetic Southside.

Onli graduated from the school in 1965 and is very concerned about the crime, violence and lack of opportunity that now are issues in the community.  He asked for a random group of students to participate as a group to discuss the merits of "Peace" and to help him produce a few banners for the school's "Peace Day" celebration.

Prof. Onli thanks Principal Henderson for allowing him the chance to give back to the school where he learned so much.

Ivette (Ivy) Garcia is a Harold Washington College Rockstar! She visited Northern Illinois University with the HWC Art Department and fell in love with what NIU has to offer art students. Ivy is now studying Art Education at NIU, and she graduated last Spring 2016 with her Associate's of Arts Degree. When asked to whom she owes her success at HWC, she gave shout outs to her rockstar professors: Turtel Onli (Art), Richard Powers (Literature), Jennifer Armendarez (Speech), and to the Transfer Director, Ellen Goldberg. She also owes so much of her success to being an Intern for the organization, Genesys Works. Go Ivy! You rock and INSPIRE! #rockstar #communitycollege #transferccc#haroldtransfers #dreamschool

Psychology and Art: A Smmary and Critique by Douglas N. Morgan

The Psychoanalytic Approach is an inquiry into the personality factors, which condition the creation and/ or appreciation of work of art.

The attempt seems to be to read the work in whatever field, symbolically, and to correlate these readings with whatever biographical data may be available, to the end that we understand more fully the personality of the creating artist, and through this understanding, light maybe thrown upon the "mystery” of creation in the arts.

The Gestalt Approach is characterized by a belief that perception (and perhaps other psychological phenomena as well) can be explained in terms of neural factors tending to produce organized, through dynamically changing patterns segregated groups of "units or wholes”. Thinkers in this tradition ask, what perceptual organizing factors condition the experience of seeing or hearing a work of art.

The Experimental (Behaviorists)  Approach is characterized by distrust of any method which makes inferences on any basis other than precise mathematical measurements of behavior and which make predictions to any other conclusions than those measurable in such precise terms. (Psychological testing.)

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ACTIVITY NOTES:

The activity and art making process I often use involves Paris Craft.  This is a safe material made of gauze imbedded with Plaster of Paris.  The activity embraces sensory integration, trust, sequential processing working in tandem along with highly successful results.  It bypasses drawing or any prior art making experiences which may have been negative. 

For instance some clients often recall early experiences in drawing that were challenging or even negative when asked to draw.  Until this is factored out, it may infuse that therapeutic  alliance with unexpected transferential aspects.

I find it easily fits into all three of the approaches listed above.

For the therapist or trainee it offers a wide range of task-analysis opportunities.

 Tamar is studying a mask before learning the process.

 Sofia actually decided to cast her arms and part of her internship.

 Sofia and Tamir attached their masks to canvas board an embellished them with acrylic paint.

 Tanya and Aisha are painting their masks.

Aisha is taking a selfie with the Good Brother Darth.  I encourage the interns to explore humor and playfulness in the studio process to learn how to manage the space and the materials appropriately.