DRAWING-for-HEALING workshop

DESCRIPTION & BACKGROUND

Segan facilitates an art therapy oriented hands-on workshop suitable for all ages of audiences. The youngest participants have been ages 4 and 5; the oldest in their 90’s. The workshop is facilitated in-tandem following exhibit tours, or following power-point classes.

It is not a studio art class. The workshop was designed to allow participants a safe environment to express visual and verbal responses to challenging subjects like the Holocaust, contemporary wars, mass shooting terrorist attacks, and to address the losses everyone experiences during our lives, e.g. friends, family, classmates, colleagues, neighbors, etc.

My Drawing-for-Healing workshop was inspired by a collective group poetry writing workshop I attended, facilitated by Leah Thorn of England, at the Second Int’l Conference on the Holocaust & Education, Int’l School for Holocaust Education, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 1999.

Her workshop was titled “Whirlwinds destroying the whole world - performance poetry in Holocaust education.” From the description page about her workshop: “Emphasis of workshop is on participants and their discoveries. No previous experience with writing or performance is necessary.”

During her workshop, Ms. Thorn spoke of how people see movies (e.g. Schindler’s List), go to hear Holocaust survivors or other genocide survivors speak, and attend other difficult topic programs, then go onto their next class, back to work, go back home – but with no processing time nor discussion of what they’ve seen, listened to, watched. I thought her collective poetry writing exercise was outstanding.

In the early 2000’s, with permission of Ms. Thorn, I led her poetry workshop with audiences (Pacific Lutheran University German language & literature classes; American Jewish children at a Seattle synagogue). I remember thinking “this is terrific but I’m a visual artist. I ought to try facilitating this with art!”

In 2003 I led my first Drawing-for-Healing workshop with a class of German language and literature students, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington.  Earlier workshops (1996, ’97, ’98) with 4th grade classes at Lee Elementary School, Columbia, Missouri, saw pupils drawing winged depictions: some drew people, some drew pets.

WHAT SUPPLIES ARE NEEDED?

a) White drawing paper (non-newsprint), e.g. 16 x 20 inches. [UK: A 2 size] Smaller size paper does not work well.

b) dark crayons, e.g. blue, black,brown, purple, green. No pencils, no pens!

SETTING, LOCATION

Locations have included classrooms; meeting rooms; school dining rooms (which have lots of tables).
Typically participants are seated at desks or tables (typically 4 participants per table unless it’s a very long table)
If paper can be tacked to a wall, then any participant wishing to stand could stand.
Easels can be used if they have a backboard (e.g. heavy weight illustration board, or a piece of plywood or masonite) that the drawing paper can be taped onto.
In 2013 an art instructor at Seattle Central College taped a very large (width, length) roll of black paper on a floor; students sat or kneeled on the floor and each drew an area on the drawing paper. That was new  a new format which worked wonderfully.
Click to see a 2 min., 5 sec. video of that workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV8BpaN9e8M&t=42s

AGES OF PARTICIPANTS

The youngest have been children ages 4, 5 and up; the oldest in their 90’s.

HOW MANY CAN ATTEND?

On average there are up to 20 participants per workshop.
There can be more participants, e.g. they can be in nearby classrooms; or as we did in
some Scottish primary schools near Glasgow where pupils of several classes were seated at dining room tables.

Two examples:
In 2015 I guest presented a power-point with 3 combined classes of ten and eleven year-old pupils at Maisondieu Primary, Angus, Scotland. Following the power-point with a Q&A, the pupils went back to each of the 3 classrooms. I went back and forth between each classroom during the workshop.

A 6 min., 21 sec. compilation of video footage taken at the Maisondieu workshop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL5BUA_jPBM&t=10s

Second example: In 2017 I guest presented a power-point and Q&A with 150 pupils, ages 14 to 16, in a school auditorium, Caerleon Comprehensive school, Wales, UK. Sixty pupils who attended the lecture participated in the workshop that followed the power-point. There were 20 pupils in each classroom. A 4 min., 20 sec. video excerpt of the discussion phase in a Caerleon school art classroom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1FZDmhuoBw&t=5s

FOUR WORKSHOP VIDEOS - SEATTLE, SCOTLAND, ISRAEL  

Seattle Central College, English dept ESL class, 2013 (6 min., 28 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShUF8ecnkCo

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Webster’s High School, Kirriemuir, Angus school district, Scotland, 2015 (15 min., 58s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ecKRAIqhW0
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Forfar Academy, a state secondary school, Angus school district, Scotland, 2015.
Workshop session 1: Anger (3M, 48s)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3qNLZ2YL9Q&t=126s
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Haifa University, first year M.A. Art therapy class (1 min., 48 sec)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy77tpy0xl8

QUESTIONS? PLEASE ASK!