What is art therapy? How can participating in art-making inspire wellness beyond the individual? Can social change be healing? How can participation alleviate isolation? Is the stress of current events bringing you down and making it challenging to be alone, come together with kindred social justice spirits and find solace and new energy in making art together!

Join Jane Addams Hull-House Museum for an art therapy workshop led by featured Hull-House artist, Leah Gipson, Assistant Professor of Art Therapy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Gipson develops new approaches to art therapy that are culturally approachable and emphasize care in the face of social challenges. Participants will make art together and learn about the historical and contemporary practices of art therapy in Chicago that help to transform communities and engage youth on the West Side of Chicago. This workshop is inspired by the history of Hull-House Resident and social reformer, Sadie Ellis Garland Dreikurs (1900-1996), author of Cows Can be Purple (1986) and considered the matriarch of art therapy. Dreikurs’ work and legacy is featured in the current exhibition Participatory Arts: Crafting Social Change on view through May 3, 2019.

FREE WITH RSVP! REFRESHMENTS SERVED! All ages welcome with supervision. Be ready to make art together, share good conversations and enjoy collective work! No prior experience necessary. All backgrounds and abilities welcome! Workshops are located in Hull-House’s historic Resident’s Dining Hall that is wheelchair accessible.

Featured Artist
Leah Gipson is an artist, board member for A Long Walk Home, and an Assistant Professor and Program Director of the Art Therapy Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Her current research interests include womanism, black feminism, black church, and the use of cultural spaces to explore the politics of individual and social change. Gipson develops counter-public projects that address gender, racial, and economic systems of inequality in Chicago’s West Side neighborhoods.

Participatory Arts: Crafting Social Change at Hull-House is part of Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art exploring Chicago’s art and design legacy, with presenting partner The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. Participatory Arts is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. The Chicago Community Trust has also provided generous support.

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Tags: Art Design Chicago, Can Cows be Purple? Participatory Arts Art Therapy Workshop, Chicago, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Leah Gipson, near west side