Spring Break
Brooks Museum offers unique display
Ralph MacDonald
Issue date: 1/28/09 Section: Entertainment
From January 10 until March 8, 2009, the Brooks Museum is housing an exhibition entitled Hands of Honor: A Collaboration With the VA Medical Center at Memphis.
Professional art therapist Karen Peacock was brought into the Recreational Therapy division of the Veterans hospital specifically for this program. Her goal was "to provide opportunities for veterans to share life stories and develop meaningful relationships through the experience of art-making and interactive gallery discussions at the museum."
Peacock used eight different therapeutic art-making exercises or "art directives" in the program. Veterans participated in "Round-Robin painting" and "Cooperative painting" as group/teamwork building activities, where each member of the group would paint a different part of a picture. "Scribble drawing" required participants to scribble at random on a sheet of paper and then find and better define images they found in their own scribbles.
The veterans also illustrated such things as opposite emotions (most appeared to be "happy and sad" or something else along those lines), each individual's service in the military, or simply a person, place, or thing that was meaningful to them.
Participants were also given the task of making paintings or drawings inspired by an exhibit that recently left the Brooks-The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, which seems a little bit out of place given the rest of the directives, but it certainly makes sense in terms of the veterans learning to appreciate art as well as learning to make it. Perhaps the Botero exhibit was part of the "interactive gallery discussion" aspect of the program. At least, that seems to be the best I can do to interpret it.
Finally, the veterans were asked answer the question "How do you see yourself in the future" through painting and drawing. This was by far my favorite part of the exhibition. One of the pieces displayed, in bold letters, "Don't Worry, Be Happy," amid the bright colors, flowers, and other happy things that piece shared with all the others.
I can't say I was surprised to find that all the drawings looked like small children made them-more so that I just did not think about it before I went. I actually enjoyed the fact that the program was not focused on artistic talent or skill-it wasn't about teaching the veterans how to draw well (or even how to draw at all). It was about the release and relieving effects art-making can have, and as far as I could tell, the program accomplished its goals.
Also at the Brooks, until February 8, you can check out the Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards 2009, which I highly recommend.
Professional art therapist Karen Peacock was brought into the Recreational Therapy division of the Veterans hospital specifically for this program. Her goal was "to provide opportunities for veterans to share life stories and develop meaningful relationships through the experience of art-making and interactive gallery discussions at the museum."
Peacock used eight different therapeutic art-making exercises or "art directives" in the program. Veterans participated in "Round-Robin painting" and "Cooperative painting" as group/teamwork building activities, where each member of the group would paint a different part of a picture. "Scribble drawing" required participants to scribble at random on a sheet of paper and then find and better define images they found in their own scribbles.
The veterans also illustrated such things as opposite emotions (most appeared to be "happy and sad" or something else along those lines), each individual's service in the military, or simply a person, place, or thing that was meaningful to them.
Participants were also given the task of making paintings or drawings inspired by an exhibit that recently left the Brooks-The Baroque World of Fernando Botero, which seems a little bit out of place given the rest of the directives, but it certainly makes sense in terms of the veterans learning to appreciate art as well as learning to make it. Perhaps the Botero exhibit was part of the "interactive gallery discussion" aspect of the program. At least, that seems to be the best I can do to interpret it.
Finally, the veterans were asked answer the question "How do you see yourself in the future" through painting and drawing. This was by far my favorite part of the exhibition. One of the pieces displayed, in bold letters, "Don't Worry, Be Happy," amid the bright colors, flowers, and other happy things that piece shared with all the others.
I can't say I was surprised to find that all the drawings looked like small children made them-more so that I just did not think about it before I went. I actually enjoyed the fact that the program was not focused on artistic talent or skill-it wasn't about teaching the veterans how to draw well (or even how to draw at all). It was about the release and relieving effects art-making can have, and as far as I could tell, the program accomplished its goals.
Also at the Brooks, until February 8, you can check out the Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards 2009, which I highly recommend.
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