Stepping Out of the Frame: Museum-Based Art Therapy Program furthers the Sun Valley Center for the Art’s mission to enrich the community by creating a program dedicated to facilitating therapeutic experiences for those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of Dementia. This is a 6-week program in which participants are asked to commit to all weekly sessions in order to gain the most educational and therapeutic benefit. Each week participants will explore the Center’s current exhibition through therapeutic art experiences both within and outside of the museum. The experiences will expose participants to and engage them with visual artworks and visual arts directives that are specifically designed to promote individual, social, and educational goals for transformation.
Stepping Out of the Frame is a 6-week program on Tuesdays & Thursdays, July 23–August 29 from 1:30–3:30pm.
MUSEUM-BASED ART THERAPY
Art Therapy is an integrative mental health profession that enriches the lives of individuals, families, and communities through active art-making and the creative process, applied psychological theory and human experience within a psychotherapeutic relationship (The American Art Therapy Association, 2017). Art Therapy is facilitated by a professional art therapist and effectively supports personal and relational goals for treatment as well as community concerns. Art Therapy is used to improve cognitive and sensory-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight, enhance social skills, and reduce and resolve internal and external conflicts. Museum-based art therapy is a collaboration between art therapy and art education in which the museum operates as a space for participants to experience inclusivity, community, and opportunities for learning and exploration while the art therapy catalyzes healing, transformation, and expression through the experiences within the museum.
