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Permission to Make Mistakes

A client creates a painting based on Aboriginal dot painting in Open Studio As an art therapist, I have noticed people’s hesitation in engaging with the creative process: “I’m not good at art,” “I’m not an artist,” or “It isn’t perfect.” The underlying thread of these responses relates to our inner critic, and our fear of failure or of having others see and regard us as incapable. The art, tangible and concrete, becomes a symbol of one’s perceived “incompetence,” and often, self-deprecating comments accompany the sharing of one’s artwork. While leading an Open Arts Studio group at Nationalities Service Center (NSC), I heard a few participants mutter the same words in response to their artwork: “No good.” We were working on Aboriginal dot paintings that particular session, using Q-Tips dipped in acrylic paint to create pieces inspired by this particular tradition. Their compositions consisted of dots in various colors used to create bold outlines of subjects of their choosing. A...
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BuildaBridge Participates in Jefferson University Symposium

Symposium attendees worked as a group to make a finished art piece On December 2, 2017, Assistant Director of Community Programs Stevie French was honored to represent BuildaBridge as a presenter in Thrive: Trauma-Informed Practice in Community-Engaged Art. The 5-hour event was hosted as part of Thomas Jefferson University/Philadelphia University’s Asano Humanities and Health series. BuildaBridge Assistant Director Stevie French presenting on trauma-informed community art-making The symposium aimed to bring together  “arts and health professionals, students and community members in conversation at the intersection(s) of trauma-informed practice and community-engaged  art.” The event was open to the public, and was attended by individuals from fields including medical, mental health, pharmaceuticals, education, and community non-profits. Stevie delivered a 5-minute presentation and a breakout workshop. Her presentation focused on the role of metaphor and non-ve...
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Open Art Studios

My name is Marilyn Rodriguez and I have been working with BuildaBridge for about a year now. I have truly enjoyed teaching the very diverse population in which BuildaBridge serves. I especially enjoy the concept of an open art studio. The staff prepares a brief demonstration for a task that the participants may choose to do in the open art studio or the participants can try something else. The participants are given a wide range of art materials to choose from in this context, if they decide not to do the activity that the staff members gave the demonstration on. The staff then helps the participants articulate what they would like to voice, whether it is through art or music. The most beautiful component I have witnessed is how music can be transferred to so many different languages and then can be merged into one. A good example of this in the open art studio environment, is when everyone sings the BuildaBridge song, some people chime in with their native languages. This song has als...
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HIAS Afterschool Program

My name is Debra Cotterall and I am a board-certified music therapist who has been working as a lead teaching artist with Buildabridge for over 3 years now. Throughout the month of February 2017, I had the pleasure of working with fellow music therapist, Grace Clements and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) Afterschool Program in order to implement a therapeutic, creative-arts based series of four lessons aimed at promoting students’ sense of self-efficacy and positive vision for the future in order to further increase personal resiliency. The curriculum aimed to support students’ holistic development through creative and academic experiences to foster inclusion, hope, resilience, self-efficacy, mastery, and vision for the future. Each lesson primarily integrated the music modality, exploring a variety of musical elements as they related to real-world application in everyday life. Music and movement were utilized to assist students in processing and coping with current resettlemen...
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PPR Field Trip to Bartram's Garden

On October 27, 2017, Sofya Mirvis, Chelsea Faulkner, and Julie Kring-Schreifels, teaching artists at BuildaBridge, led a group of six people on a field trip to Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. This trip began with a very tranquil and engaging tour through Bartram’s Garden. During the tour, everyone got to try out different types of edible wild fruit, flowers, and plants, including: passion fruit, figs, and locust pods. The clients also picked out their favorite plants, fruit, and/or flowers while on the walk through the garden to later draw, paint, or put on a sun print. When we got back from the tour, the group was given a demonstration on botanical illustration. In the demonstration, they learned about the history, the techniques necessary, and the resources that were available in the classroom for botanical illustration. Two alternative activities were also given: sun prints and printmaking. After the demonstrations, everyone excitedly and diligently got to work. Overall, the trip...
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PPR Women and Children Group Explores Healing Through Mural

Full view of the classroom-size tape-art mural, which dealt with themes of healing and safety. Tape Art - Safety Theme The families class at NSC is doing a curriculum on safety The purpose of the activity this class was to foster participants’ awareness of their own ability to rise up in the face of instability and make change. Participants were prompted to use tape as a tool to draw a temporary mural. Staff set the stage of the mural by drawing on the wall with painter's tape, drawing a storm with clouds, lightning and rain. Participants were prompted to draw images of items, people and scenarios that they wanted to keep safe and protected in their life and in the box of safety, under the storm on the wall. The instructors then metaphorically “exposed” the things in the safety box by removing the tape barrier between the storm and the box. Participants then taped onto the mural ways of staying safe in the storm. They depicted umbrellas, shelters, and windshield wipers. They...
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Refugee Project Celebrates World Refugee Day at City Hall

On Saturday, July 9 volunteers from BuildaBridge led creative arts activities at Nationalities Service Center's World Refugee Day 2016 celebration. The event took place in the courtyard of Philadelphia Hall. The event was attended by many from the public as well as several familiar faces from our PPR and PRMHC classes. Visual artist Arielle led an arts activity where visitors were encouraged to create " prayer flags ." Prayer flags originate in Eastern cultures, and were originally used to promote compassion, wisdom, peace and strength (Wikipedia). It is believed that each one's message of goodwill will spread to the space around them. Each visitor was asked to use paint, glitter, glue, and sequins to create a flag representing "What does HOME look like to you?" Among the flags were images of hearts, smiles, and the word "love." We at Refugee Project think that the idea of home being "love" is an especially great example of how "home...
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