Art Therapy Symposium on April 7 explores Detroit's use of art

Communities can be strengthened through the act of making art, according to a founder of ArtsCorpsDetroit and keynote presenter at Mount Mary’s Spring 2017 Art Therapy Symposium on April 7.
Holly Feen-Calligan, who has directed the art therapy program at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, will explain how her group has applied the healing strategies of art therapy to foster community engagement within metropolitan Detroit.

ArtsCorpsDetroit, aimed at strengthening university-community relationships, service-learning and volunteerism for students, alumni and others who want to help revitalize the City of Detroit through the arts.

“Across the United States art therapists are deeply interested in exploring the intersections of clinical practice and social justice concerns,” said Bruce Moon, art therapy professor and founder of the annual symposium. “Significant questions that challenge the boundaries of traditional therapy will be addressed, as will the role of the arts in advocacy, protest and social activism.”

Other workshop topics include:
  • Visual note taking: A technique for recording and understanding thought processes and emotions.
  • Addressing trauma: Community-based art therapy strategies that respond to urban and inter-generational trauma.
  • Outside the edges: This workshop explores topics beyond the spectrum of conventional art therapy.
  • Addiction treatment: Treating trauma and addiction together.

Mount Mary’s annual spring art therapy symposium brings together students, artists, art therapists and mental health professionals from the Midwest, who work in a wide range of clinical and outpatient settings.

Changing lives through art

ArtsCorpsDetroit is a community engagement initiative of the James Pearson Duffy Department of Art and Art History, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, which provides arts-based programs to metro Detroit residents through workshops and community projects.

Learn more about the Art Therapy Symposium
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Mount Mary University is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM), No. 4529, and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements. The ACEP solely is responsible for all aspects of the program.