From 2016-2017, with help from an initial seed grant from the UT Arlington College of Liberal Arts, associate professor of art education Amanda Alexander developed five workshops and an art exhibition called Artopia to serve as an art therapy program for student veterans.
The college’s liberal arts program was accepting applications to grant ‘Cure to Care’ seed funding to programs and research that aligned with the “Health and the Human Condition” plank of the University of Texas at Arlington’s strategic plan.
With the knowledge that a broad definition of health includes not only physical but mental and emotional health and welfare, Alexander’s program was approved for $10,000 in funding from the liberal arts college.
Alexander explained that the grant money was used for art supplies and materials; snacks and food during the workshops; and pay for two art therapists, two film and video undergraduate students who documented the workshops, and the visual communication and design undergraduate student who branded the project, including the name, logo and website.
Four art education students were also paid to work with Fort Worth’s The Art Station, a nonprofit organization offering individual and group art therapy, to develop ideas for and help set up the workshops and to support the veterans during their art-making.
Alexander said she was happy to be able to involve so many UT Arlington students in the project, which originated from a project called Operation Bluebird that three of her students devised for her Entrepreneurship in the Arts course, which they envisioned as an art therapy nonprofit for UT Arlington student veterans.
Artopia was co-guided by Alexander and faculty from the Department of Psychology in collaboration with the Veterans Assistance Center at the university.
“One of the things that we’re trying to demonstrate is that the liberal arts, the humanities, the social sciences and the fine arts can contribute toward a healthy life,” said Elisabeth Cawthon, UT Arlington’s dean of liberal arts. “Amanda’s project is a very good example of that. She’s trained in art education but she also is an expert in what I would call something broader than art; it’s outreach through art.”
Cawthon defined outreach through art as helping people communicate through artistic means and visual expressions. People who may have difficulty expressing ideas or feelings, such as those who have experienced some kind of trauma, may have repressed their ability to communicate their emotions about that experience, she said.
“Giving people the techniques and environment in which they can communicate visually is a great gift,” Cawthon said. “Artopia’s really about the welfare of veterans and saying, ‘We’re here for you to be able to safely express your emotions, your feelings, your thoughts, as a veteran.’ And this was something that we in the college thought was a tremendous outreach to a larger community.”
Professional art therapy support was provided to the program by two licensed art therapists from The Art Station, which offers semi-weekly groups for veterans at its Fort Worth location.
“When the idea of offering art therapy workshops for veterans took seed in the Art Education Department of UTA, they contacted The Art Station because of our expertise in art therapy and our experience working with veterans,” Art Station founder Jane Avila said. “We worked with them to plan the overall approach as well as plan and facilitate specific art therapy content for each of the workshops.”
For 57-year-old UT Arlington master’s student and Air Force veteran Sherry Knutson, art therapy gave her an insight into how to deal with trauma she had experienced during her service.
“I would say this, and I truly mean it, that art therapy allowed me to get back into life fully as opposed to living in just a shell of who I was,” she said. [See sidebar.]
One of the reasons Artopia resonated with the College of Liberal Arts the fact that out of UT Arlington’s more than 41,000 students, close to 5,000 are military veterans, which Alexander says is one of the highest such populations across Texas universities.
“Many veterans deal with trauma, stress, anxiety and difficult life transitions after service,” Avila explained. “Art therapy uses a different approach – it provides opportunities that are kinesthetic, sensory, perceptual and symbolic, making this type of psychotherapy effective when words are too painful, inaccessible or inadequate.”
The Artopia program ran for one academic year (2016-17) and featured five workshops: Visual Meditation Making Mandalas; Painting your Future with Vision Boards; Painting Challenges Away: Watercolor Weave; Resilience: The Art of the Cover-up; and Technology, Movement and Art.
Before and after each of workshop, university researchers conducted a Profile of Mood States survey with the veterans to measure their psychological distress. According to the university, the POMS survey is considered an excellent measure and is known for its ease of administration.
After the pre-test survey was administered, art therapists would explain the art activity, work with veterans while they made their art, and toward the end discuss what participants had made and why. Finally, the post-test survey would be administered.
More than 50 veterans and a few spouses participated in the workshops and 33 completed the pre/post POMS survey.
UT Arlington researchers have since found that, for veterans participating in Artopia:
• 98 percent said Artopia helped them cope with their service-related trauma;
• 98 percent reported that Artopia helped them cope with everyday life;
• 97 percent believe that Artopia helped them cope with their loved one’s service-related trauma or disability.
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The university also said the veterans reported that their overall mood disturbance was at least 50 percent lower after participation in Artopia.
UT Arlington researchers found that:
• 98 percent of the veterans enjoyed working with the art therapists;
• 98 percent of the veterans found the Artopia workshops helpful;
• 97 percent of the veterans believed that the Artopia workshops were educational.
After seeing the positive results from one academic year of Artopia workshops, Alexander aims to secure more finding to bring the program back.
“I am currently searching for funding outside of UTA and the College of Liberal Arts. I believe that I can potentially secure two streams of funding: one for the data being collected, and two for the story behind the project,” she explained. “It’s possible that a large research grant could help with data collection, and a foundation might be interested in providing funding for the story, testimonial evidence and visual documentation.”
If funding is secured for another round of Artopia, Alexander said, there are talks about not only providing the program on the UT Arlington campus but possibly moving it around the Dallas-Fort Worth area to reach more veterans.
It is also important to Alexander to continue to include UT Arlington students in the back-end of the program. She said that after the project ended, many students became interested in pursuing art therapy as a career. Alexander thinks that this could develop into a certificate or degree in the future at UT Arlington.
To read more about how art has helped a veteran work through PTSD, click here.