Sunday, April 17, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Art Therapy In A Collaborative Context: A symposium featuring Bruce Moon

Register online at http://tinyurl.com/art-therapy-symposium*
Light breakfast and lunch provided
This symposium is an exploration of the shared significances, opportunities, and challenges activated by collaborative arts and arts therapies contexts. Keynote speaker Bruce Moon, an art therapist and professor at Mount Mary College, will lead an experiential workshop that incorporates movement, poetry, sound, and performance. This day-long program will culminate with student presentations that challenge disciplinary parameters and engage the parallels of interdisciplinary and community collaborations. We welcome to the symposium all artists, arts educators, health care professionals, social workers, counselors, students, and researchers who are interested in examining the potential for collaborative approaches to scholarship and practice in the therapeutic applications of the arts.
Bruce L. Moon, PhD, ATR-BC, LPC, HLM is a professor, chair of the art therapy department, director of the graduate art therapy program, and co-founder of the doctoral program at Mount Mary College. He is the author of Art-Based Group Therapy; Existential Art Therapy; Introduction to Art Therapy, and seven other books. His clinical specialty is working with adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders. He has worked in the field since 1973.
Objectives for Symposium
Attendees will be able to:
1) Describe three ways that art therapists' personal art making helps to prevent burn-out;
2) Describe three purposes for responsive art making;
3) Discuss the interrelationship of art therapy practice, art practice, and art-based research.
*Please note that in order to attend this symposium, you must register for it online.
To see the symposium postcard and other exciting upcoming art therapy events, go to: http://saicmaat.wordpress.com
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Related event:
The Art of Connection
May 13-May 27, 2011
Public reception: Friday May 13, 7- 8: 30 pm
Betty Rymer Gallery, 280 S. Columbus Drive
www.saic.edu/exhibitions
Monday, March 14, 2011
Mindfulness and Embodiment in Art Therapy with Suellen S. Semekoski
The dialogue at this event will focus on a psychospiritual understanding of trauma and the importance of mindfulness and embodiment in art therapy and trauma treatment. Participants will learn how storytelling, poems, and photos can creatively weave together experiences of transformation of trauma through the embodiment of walking and conscious breathing. Light refreshments will be served.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Louise Bourgeois Documentary
Monday, February 7, 2011
Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art

Chicago Cultural Center
Jan 22, 2011 - Apr 13, 2011
Free Admission
Twenty-nine contemporary artists from 25 countries address violence against women and their basic human right to safe and secure lives around the world. Featuring work by renowned artists such as Marina Abramović, Laylah Ali, Yoko Ono, among others, the exhibition asked artists to create art that builds awareness, inspiration, and positive social change and action.
Organized by Art Works for Change, the exhibition is curated by Randy Jayne Rosenbergand and will also be seen in Norway, Mexico, France, and South Africa, among other stops on its worldwide tour.
The free program series for the exhibition considers the global issue of violence against women through a series of innovative local programs organized by the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women & Gender in the Arts & Media; Rape Victim Advocates; and The Voices and Faces Project.
Related Events:
Thursday, February 17, 7 pm: A Special Performance of Stories on Stage
Tuesday, March 8, 6 pm: Art & Civic Engagement: An Artist Panel Discussion, with exhibition artists
Saturday & Sunday, March 26 – 27: Testimonial Writing Workshop
Friday, April 1, 7 pm: Enemies of Silence: A Night of Poetry & Performance
Friday, April 8, 12 – 3 pm: The Southern Poverty Law Center’s return of “The Bandana Project”
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Spring Planning | Join our Facebook Page!



Tuesday, January 25, 2011: The SAIC Art Therapy Association's second-year student group leaders have passed the event-planning "paintbrush" to a new group of first-year student group leaders from the SAIC Master of Arts in Art Therapy Program. We're planning some exciting art therapy events for Spring 2011. We'll keep you posted on upcoming lectures, film screenings, and workshops through our blog and Facebook!
If you would like to learn more about our student group or participate as a guest lecturer, please contact:
Amy L. Cavazos | amycavazos@gmail.com
Katrina Funk | kafunk@gmail.com
Explore | Experiment | Exhale

Friday, December 17, 2010 | First-Year MAAT Students presented artwork from their Materials & Media in Art Therapy Class.
During the Fall 2010 semester, Catherine Moon, MA, ATR-BC created a learning atmosphere for students to examine "the qualities and properties of art materials, media, and processes, and their applications in the context of art therapy. Socially constructed understandings of the significance of materials and media, as well as the relevance of contemporary art practices to art therapy, (were) investigated through lecture, discussion, and experiential formats."
Please view photos from the celebration by clicking here.
Enjoy!
The Intuit Show Of Folk and Outsider Art at SOFA
On November 6, 2010 members of Chicago-area organizations that foster disabled and differently abled artists shared artwork made by artists that they support and debated whether or not the work may be considered 'outside.' The panel included: Robert Lentz, Project Onward; Frank Tumino; Little City; Maggie Roche, El Valor; and Ryan Shuquem, The Arts of Life; moderated by art therapist and SAIC MAAT faculty, Suellen Semekoski. http://www.outsiderfolkartfair.com/
Thursday, December 9, 2010
"Harm's Touch: The Gifts and Costs of What We Witness"
Thursday, November 11, 2010
What you need to know...
Back on October 30th, Sangi, Amy, Katrina, Joyce, Stephany, and myself had a little meeting to discuss the future of this student group and how it will be organized. I'll spare you of the tedious details and fill you in on what you really need to know.
- We are hoping to have at least one event each month. These events will vary: movie nights, speakers, work shops, art shows, etc. Basically whatever we want!
- The ball is starting to roll for fund-raising! Stephany has taken charge of our future Etsy account, and we are hoping to start the cash flow in the near future. Be thinking about things you would be willing to donate to the group, be it existing art from forever ago, or things you want to make now.
- On the horizon are possible scholarships to attend the AATA conference. (This is still somewhat early in development, but we're getting there). In order to put our funds to practical use, we want to make the money available to people who need it! As we get closer to that (and as we actually get money), there will be more details.
- There is a Facebook page... join that (if you haven't already)
- Also, for some strange reason, our logo with the SAIC square is no longer allowed (can't use their logo), so we are calling for submissions for a new logo- all you graphic designers pull out your Macs and get to work!
- Finally, the blog itself, if you are reading this now, that's a good sign that you have found it! If you are interested in writing for the blog, please contact Katrina or Amy. They hold the blogging key.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
AATA conference is here
Excited to see what's in store this year!
And Congratulations to Theresa for getting a scholarship!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
AATA Conference in Sacramento
Who's going?
Monday, July 26, 2010
Torture- redefined
Newspapers Helped Redefine Torture
July 26, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Student Journalists Document the Pandering
of Major Media to the Bush Administration:
Newspapers Collaborated
in Redefining Torture
“On the one hand, waterboarding is torture. On the other hand….
I’m sorry – there is no other hand. Waterboarding is torture, period. It’s been that way for decades…”
That’s the compelling lead of Will Bunch’s July 1, 2010, post on Media Matters for America. It’s titled “Torture” Study Reveals Appalling Cowardice of America’s Newspapers and it goes on:
“…it was torture when we went after Japanese war criminals who used the ancient and inhumane interrogation tactic, it was torture when Pol Pot and some of the worst dictators known to mankind used it against their own people, and it was torture to the U.S. military which once punished soldiers who adopted the grim practice.
“And waterboarding was described as “torture,” almost without fail, in America’s newspapers. Until 2004, after the arrival of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and their criminal notions of “enhanced interrogations.”
Please note that Bunch’s article includes sourcing for each of the above assertions, if you have any doubts about their accuracy.
He’s reacting to a devastating new study from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Torture at Times: Waterboarding in the Media. The study documents the fact that, since the 1930’s, America’s major newspapers had almost invariably referred to waterboarding as torture, or implied that it was torture, (The New York Times in 81.5% of its articles mentioning the subject; The Los Angeles Times in 96.3% of its articles.) Yet, after the controversy over the Bush administation’s use of the practice hit the news the same papers almost never referred to waterboarding as torture (The New York Times, 1.4% of articles; The Los Angeles Times, 4.8%.)
Credit Where it’s Due:
“Never before in my adult life,” says Bunch, “have I been so ashamed of my profession, journalism.” Yet neither he nor any of the other journalists whose commentaries I’ve seen has done anything more than mention the fact that the study was authored not by professional journalists, but by students. It’s both remarkable and disturbing that, while a host of professional writers have taken anecdotal note of the mainstream media’s acquiescence in administration “newspeak,” we had to wait on a group of students to come up with the hard evidence.
So, I want to at least take this opportunity to give much deserved credit to the student authors: Torture at Times: Waterboarding in the Media was done at Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy by law student Neal Desai and students Andre Pineda, Majken Runquist and Mark Fusunyan. The research team also included students Katy Glenn, Gabrielle Gould, Michelle Katz, Henry Lichtblau, Maggie Morgan, Sophia Wen and Sandy Wong.
Let’s hope we’ll see some of those names showing up as bylines in the major media not too long from now – and let’s hope they manage to hang onto their commitment to getting the facts.
Other online coverage of the Report include Bunch’s comments on the NY Times’ initial response to the study, Glenn Greenwald, at Salon.com, Adam Serwer, at American Prospect, and no doubt many others.
Source: http://blog.refugemediaproject.org/2010/07/26/newspapers-helped-redefine-torture/
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Sumi Ink Workshop (with model) this Saturday
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Randy Vick moderating panel at Intuit tomorrow
"Who is Charles Steffen?" Panel Dicussion
Thursday, 06/10/2010, 6:00–7:30 p.m.
Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art
756 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL
Randy Vick will serve as the moderator for a panel discussion titled “Who is Charles Steffen? This panel is in conjunction with Life Lines: The Drawings of Charles Steffen . Steffen dedicated a large portion of his time towards drawing and amassed a body of over 2,000 pieces. Of the thousands of drawings, only works from the last six years of his life, 1989–1995, have survived. His oeuvre would have been lost completely if it had not been for the efforts of his nephew, Christopher Preissing, who took an interest in his uncle’s creations. Thanks to Preissing and gallery owner Russell Bowman, a fair amount of Steffen’s drawings were saved and brought to public attention. Panelists include Russell Bowman, curator Eugenie Johnson, and Christopher Preissing.
This event is free and open to the public.
See Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art for more details.
Monday, June 7, 2010
If you know anyone in San Francisco...

From the website:
Sins Invalid is a performance project that incubates and celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and queer and gender-variant artists in performance work exploring sexuality, embodiment and the disabled body. Conceived and led by disabled people of color, we develop work that challenging normative paradigms of "normal" and "sexy" to offering a vision of beauty and sexuality inclusive of all individuals and communities.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Article in Chicago arts magazine
http://chicagoartmagazine.com/2010/06/school-of-the-art-institutes-art-therapy-program/
Chicago arts magazine wrote:
Chicago’s School of the Art Institute has one of the oldest professional programs in art therapy. Students in their Master of the Arts in Art Therapy program take forty-eight course credits (thirty-nine in art therapy and nine in studio electives) over two to four years as well as gain a minimum of nine hundred hours of clinical experience, completing two field work assignments, one with either children or adolescents and the other with either adults or seniors. The art therapy courses range in medium and approach. Students can, for example, take courses in Video & the Human Experience, Psychopathology, Family Art Therapy and Counseling Techniques.
Recent student M.A. theses have addressed Rendering visibility: art therapy and queer theory, Making room to heal: the collaborative creation of an art therapy program for and with women who have experienced homelessness and Cognitive art therapy: exploring negative thoughts through image making. The faculty is dedicated to applying their knowledge outside of the classroom. Catherine Moon, the Chair of the program, recently published Materials and Media in Art Therapy: Critical Understandings of Diverse Artistic Vocabularies and spends her summers working in Africa with local AIDS survivors, encouraging the use of local materials in their maintenance of sustainability and movements towards social action.
In addition to the formal program, in October 2009, the graduate students formed a SAIC Chapter of the Art Therapy Association, programming monthly events—public lectures, symposium and art exhibits—in order to acquire further knowledge from outside of the curriculum and develop their art-making practices. Sangeetha Ravichandran, the student leader and co-founder of the group, states, “We have been a very active student association trying to gain more insight into art, social action and art based help, however, we do not limit ourselves to those particular topics.
In their operating first school year, the group brought in both “superstar art therapists” Pat Allen and Harriet Wadeson for a workshop and a talk, respectively. They also organized an art show, titled Social Bodies: Examining the Hybridity of Identity, for which they made and displayed art so as to conduct an intersectional analysis of their own races, classes, genders and sexualities as well as explore their biases and privileges in the society. While this student group is still in its infancy, it should be exciting to see how it develops and continues to engage both the art therapy and art exhibition communities of the city.
Chicago’s significant art therapy community is largely due to the number and quality of graduate students coming out of SAIC. While there are many schools of thought in the art therapy field, SAIC has recently begun steering away from psychoanalysis and limiting schools of thought and choosing to instead focus on relational and culturally sensitive ways of thinking. Alumni practicing in Chicago use art therapy in a variety of manners, some focusing more on the positive effects of art making and others using art as a point of metaphor or medium of communication. The Illinois Art Therapy Association (IATA) connects all art therapists in the Illinois area, and the American Art Therapy Association (AATA) is the national organization. SAIC graduate students and alumni regularly attend both local and national conferences held by these two organizations.


