Try Art Therapy. Part 1

Try Art Therapy

Part 1

I Lead in.

a)    Take two minutes to think of the associations with the word ‘art’. Note down your ideas and compare them with other students.

b)     Think of your associations with the word ‘therapy’ –“a treatment that helps someone feel better, grow stronger, especially after an illness”. How can art be used in therapy? What are your ideas about art therapy?

II Pronunciation focus. Look at the phonetic symbols [ɪ], [aɪ]. How do you pronounce them? Put the words in the list in the correct column based on the way you pronounce the underlined letters. Listen or watch and check.

 docent; display; recently; curator; museum; collection; check; architect; designed; contemplate

[s]	[k]	[tʃ]	[z]
sea	cat	chess	zoo

III Vocabulary focus. Match the words to their definitions. Use two words in your sentences.

curator; check out; label; connection; architect; contemplate; therapist

1.    a person in charge of a museum

2.    someone whose job is to treat  a certain illness

3.    someone whose job is to design new buildings

4.    to examine something

5.    a piece of paper that gives you information about the object

6.    to spend a long time thinking

7.    link or association

IV Watch the video and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

1.    The speaker recently visited ____ and learned quite a bit about herself.

        a)  a war museum       b) an art museum        c) an art installation

 2.    The speaker was meeting up with not a curator or docent or artist, but ______.

      a) an art student    b) an art professor     c) an art therapist

3.    The building was designed by ______ I.M. Pei.

         a) painter        b) engineer      c) architect

4.    This day was for free ______ and introspection.

a) drawing  b) association   c) connected

5.    The speaker worked with a credentialed art therapist to see what kinds of ____ they might draw between what she sees and what she feels.  

     a) connections      b) collector        c) lectures 

V Look at the artwork below. Think of the answers to the questions:

A)  What do you see when you look at this artwork?

B) What are your associations with the work of art? What mood, feelings, and ideas do you see in the work of art?

C) How do you feel when you look at this work of art? Does it remind you of any object or situation in your life?

VI Vocabulary focus. Match the words to their definitions. Use four words in your sentences.

wire; intricate; quilt; delicate; to affix; metaphor; flexible; hold together; whole; to float;

transition

a)    a piece of thin metal thread

b)    a decorative cover for bed

c)    to stick together

d)    to move through air or water

e)    attractive and thin

f)     able to be bent without breaking

g)    having a lot of small parts arranged in a complex way

h)    imaginative way of describing something

i)      change from one action to another

j)     to keep something in one piece

k)    complete and not divided

VII Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the words from the list. There are some words you don’t need to use.

metal; studio; artwork; delicate; material; stronger; life; connecting; wall; therapist; soul; wire; tradition; question; delicious; world

Let’s start with this 1)______. We’re going to break from 2)_____ and not tell you at first who made it, or when, or why. But we are going to look at it and ask ourselves objectively: What do we see? I see lots of shiny little 3)______objects held together by 4)______, joined into a kind of quilt-like structure, which must be affixed to the wall but appears to be floating there, as if frozen in mid-motion. To me, it looks 5)______and flexible, but also strong. Simultaneously intricate and stable. If you’re at the Eskenazi Museum and working with their credentialed art 6)______, Lauren Daugherty, she might then ask me to take it a step further and consider whether I might find any metaphors in what I’ve described, or find a way of 7)______this object to my life. Perhaps my life, like this artwork, is delicate and intricate, but 8)______and more stable than it looks. Someone else might look at this artwork and say, it’s held together and on the 9)______, but it looks like it could fall off at any second. Maybe that resonates with them and their 10)______, that they’re held together, but barely. Lauren might first ask, "What holds this object together?" And then transition to asking: “What holds you together?” Then she might show you to the art-making 11)______where you could create art that relates to this 12)______in some way. She might ask you to picture what your life would look like if the thing that was holding you together wasn’t there. Alternatively she might ask them to envision what their life would look like if what is missing was actually there. If their 13)______was whole, what would it look like?

VIII Watch the part of the video and mark the sentences as True (T) or False (F). Correct the false statements.

1.    The artwork in the video is a painting of a quilt.

2.    The artwork in the video is affixed to the wall.

3.    The artwork in the video looks thick and not flexible.

4.    Art therapist, Lauren Daugherty asks people to find a way of connecting this artwork to people’s life.

5.    Person’s life, like this artwork, can be delicate and intricate.

6.    Art therapists wants to know what holds the artwork together and what holds person’s life together.

7.    People go home and create art that relates to the questions about artwork.

8.    People try to picture what their life would look like if the thing that was holding it together wasn’t there.  

IX Vocabulary focus. Match the words to their definitions. Use four words in your sentences.

approach; assumption; victim; response; landscape; abuse; traumatic

a)    a way of doing something

b)    something that you accept as true without proof

c)    shocking and painful

d)    picture of the countryside

e)    someone who has been hurt

f)     cruel and violent treatment of someone

g)    answer or reaction

X Watch the video and choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

The glory of this cockroach/coach/approach is that you don’t need to be an expert about anything, and you can have productive experience/spear/experts even if the assumptions you make are wrong. The art can be whatever you think it is, and you can go on a journey based on what it looking/looks/hook like to you. If you thought the El Anatsui work looked flexible/instability/flex, but strong, what else in the galleries might represent that? Maybe we think this little alligator dude looks strong. Or these figurative/figures/figured exhibit strength. Or maybe we see a mask in the room that we think looks strong. Perhaps someone else sees a depend/different/defend emotion in the mask, which might lead to a discussion about the things you do and do not show the world.

"What asked/make up/masks do you wear?"

Lauren also works with groups of young/youth/youngsters people who have been through traumatic experiences. And she finds escape/skates/landscapes to be particularly useful in sparking discussions among them. Let’s take this painting, for example. You know how in Mary Poppins she takes the kids into the painting/planting/painter? Well Lauren might ask her group to do the same: "Where do you belong in this painting?" Sometimes darkness can be trauma/traumatize/traumatic for people, maybe for those who’ve been victims of sexual abuse that happened only in the dark. Considering where they would be standing, in the lighter areas or in the darker ones, can be a way to begin a discuss/discussion/discussed about extremely difficult topics. "What kind of things might happen if you weren't in a safe place?" Often in their responses they’re building from past experienced/periodic/experiences.  

XI Watch the part of the video and answer the questions.

1) Do people need to be specialists in art and art history to have art therapy experience?

2) What images or artworks showing strength does the video discuss?

3) What questions does art therapist ask (note down 3 questions)?

4) What can people discuss when they look at a landscape?

5) What associations can people have with dark and light areas of the painting?

XII Watch the video and fill in the gaps with the missing words. 

But let’s consider where our safe places might be in another 1)_____. Perhaps we want to be in this 2)_____over here. Or hidden up in the 3)_____. A kid might joke and say, “I want to be hanging from that limb right there,” and Lauren might ask, "Does that actually look safe to you. What would happen if you fell?" One might say their 4)_____will give them a hug and a band aid, and another might say their dad’s going to be mad when they fall and break something and have to go to the 5)_____where it’s going to cost money. Another might say they’d  want to be away from the shady looking guy with the stick. Another might think he doesn’t look shady at all, that he’s stranded. Me? I’d be with the group of 6)_____right here, in the light. They’re on the path. They know where they’re going. But someone else might not find 7)_____in other people. Maybe they say, “I don’t want people bugging me all the time.” That all tells Lauren something, and gives her a 8)_____to take her follow up questions.

XIII OVER TO YOU. Try elements of art therapy during your own (virtual visit) to a museum.

A.   Look at the list of the museums that offer virtual tour, and choose the one you want to visit (on a virtual tour). (You can choose a different museum if it offers a virtual tour but is not listed below);

B.   Go on a virtual tour of the museum of your choice. As you explore the collections do a little art therapy exercise. Don’t try to find the information about the paintings or other works of art that you see. Your feelings and associations are more important than your knowledge of art history or techniques. During your virtual tour of the museum find and get ready to briefly describe:

1.    Find an artwork that is a symbol of strength for you;

2.    Find a painting that you like. In your imagination ‘transport’ yourself into the painting. Where are you in the painting (where is your place in the painting)?

3.    Find an artwork that you associate with your safe place.

 

C.   Share your ideas and experience with other students, get ready to briefly describe the artworks that you chose in task B.

 

List of museums:

1.    British Museum, London 

2.    Guggenheim Museum, New York 

          3.    National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

4.    Musée d’Orsay, Paris
5.    National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
6.    Pergamon Museum, Berlin
7.    Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
8.    Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
9.    The J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
10.Uffizi Gallery, Florence
11.MASP, São Paulo
12.National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City