October 2001 NEWS
CONTENTS:
Women In Recovery: The Healing Art of Photography
Karen Godfrey: Art & Healing
featured Book: Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance: Awakening Spirituality Through Movement and Ritual by Iris J. Stewart
Public Art Network (PAN)
Women In Recovery: The Healing Art of Photography
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| Cocoon: Marcie, by Norma, a participant in the Women in Recovery Photography Workshops. Marcie chose how she wished to be depicted as part of a project "to model yourself to depict your inner self/emotions/feelings." |
Since 1998, Alcina Horstman has been helping pre- and post-natal women in San Francisco, CA recover from drugs and alchohol addiction by giving them an expressive outlet -- creative writing and photography. The program, calledWomen in Recovery Photography Workshops, is currently sponsored by Women and Children's Family Services (WAC). Working with the women in three residential houses maintained by WAC, Alcina has organized diverse projects such as autobiographical writing, cyanotype quilts, children's books with sunprints, and shadow boxes. For many of these women, this class is their first opportunity to learn technical skills and the art of self-expression through photography. Past projects include making portraits to express interior feelings and/or how participants would like to be seen by others. WAC staff have noted the positive impact of the Women in Recovery Photography Workshop, stating "It helps them be creative, and keep things off their minds" and "This class expands their looking at their lives on a different level and perspective." Another staff member writes, "... an amazing outlet for expression, radically different from their other work here -- all part of my belief in art therapy as a form of expression/recovery." For more information, please contact Alcina Horstman at alcina@studio32.com or call 510-381-9080.
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Karen Godfrey: Art & Healing:
Karen Godfrey's web site provides a nice, clear introduction to using art to heal life threatening illness. Her site includes specific directions for art activities, such as painting your emotions, making a self-soothing book, and more. She also offers insights into how art heals and what grief teaches us. As a healing artist, Godfrey uses expressive art therapy in her practice as a social worker and she specializes in helping women with cancer. She offers workshops and support groups in Michigan. Click here to visit her site.
FEATURED BOOK:
Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance: Awakening Spirituality Through Movement and Ritual by Iris J. Stewart
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"Dance is an elemental, eternal form of human expression. To dance, at its simplest is to let the body express itself rhythmically. Movement, our first language, touches centers beyond the reach of vocabularies....In its sacred form, dance is a language that reunites the body, soul, andmind." So writes Iris Stewart, author of Sacred Women: Sacred Dance, a book which explores the history of women's way of expressing the Divine through a study of the history of dance as an expression of spirituality. It describes sacred circles, birth rituals, ecstatic dances, and dances of loss and grief (in groups and individually) that allow women to integrate movements of faith, healing, and power, into their daily lives. The book is full of color and black and white illustrations of dancers from all over the world. Published by Inner Traditions International in 2000. Softcover. 246 pages. $29.95. Click here to order. For more information, visit www.SacredDancer.com
PUBLIC ART NETWORK (PAN)
Created by Americans for the Arts, the Public Art Network (PAN) is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in creating public art - which can be a great way to bring the healing power of creativity into one's community. Their web site at www.artsusa.org/common/contenta.asp?id=159 serves as a clearinghouse that stimulates dialogue, discusses critical issues, develops professional standards, and provides public art information to members and the general public. PAN recently released the 2000-2001 Public Art Program Directory, a guide to over 300 public art programs worldwide. PAN also manages an active and informative public art listserv for Americans of the Arts' members. For more information, click here.
Visit the Art in the Public Interest web site at www.communityarts.net/api where they offer a newsletter featuring community arts projects, events, and news.
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