Featured
Dismantling racist and colonial violence: Finding our voices, shifting narratives, active resistance.
Building and co-creating spaces of belonging and livable futures.
Amanda Gee (ON)
Fall always feels like a fresh start to me. Some things stay the same even though this fall is very different.
Patricia Ki (ON)
Spending time with the artwork and writings in this issue brings to mind Audre Lorde’s essay, “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” in which she wrote:
“Poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action.”
Toronto Art Therapy Institute award recipients for the 2020 Gilda Grossman Major Project Prize, Tania Santer, and the 2020 Dr. Martin Fischer Thesis Prize, Jesse Pajuäär, share the abstracts for their award-winning papers. Congratulations!
Rebecca Montgomery (BC)
Art Therapy Conversations - a regular column where we get to learn from and connect with art therapists from across the country. In this issue Rebecca chats with Marbella Carlos, art therapist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, on facilitating spaces of belonging alongside Black, Indigenous and people of colour in both academic and community spaces.
Gillian King (ON), with text by Gabrielle Doiron (ON)
A series of artwork that invites us to look up and down, to recognize how the microcosm and the macrocosm behave alike, mirroring one other. Equally, it is a call to look around to recognize the myriad ways in which all life on Earth — human and other-than-human — is mutually dependent.
Chioma Anah (Baltimore, MD)
Making Space: Art and Social Justice Advocacy with Dr. Anah
Black lives have meaning and value, and they matter. This article works to pay homage to the many Black men and women who have been targets, and ultimately victims of brutality at the hands of law enforcement. We are SAYING THEIR NAMES.
CW: Please note that this article contains imagery and descriptions of police brutality, killings, and violence.
Cheryl Price (BC)
For those who have experienced trauma, disconnection is familiar. Disconnection from Self. From others. From life. A survival strategy. Art therapy opens the path to reconnect. A path which is so needed in these difficult times, when addressing unresolved relational trauma is even more challenging. Connection is now perceived as a risk. Disconnection has become prevalent.
Samantha Quek (Singapore), with image by Li June Han (Singapore)
A poem on finding one’s way.
Joshua Nan (Hong Kong), Katie Pang (Hong Kong), Maria Riccardi (QC)
Research conducted by the first author shows that expressive arts activities have various benefits when dealing with life and death issues, communicating strong emotions, and buffering interpersonal conflicts over sensitive issues. The artwork can also be a symbol of final messages to send love, the last words, and the will, from one who is leaving to the beloved.
Marcella Boechat (Brazil)
After 4 years living in Canada I moved back home. The context was me coming to be with my grandmother while she was going through radiotherapy and chemotherapy treatments.
Emmanuelle Cesari et Sophie Gérard (France)
En invitant ces participants à un atelier d’e‑art‑thérapie, notre objectif principal est de les aider à déposer leur anxiété sur un support créatif et de la mettre ainsi à distance.
A project to explore the effectiveness of online art therapy in decreasing anxiety.
Li June Han (Singapore)
Recently I have been feeling the need to retreat. The world seems to have taken on a strange glow, an odd appearance. It seems surreal the way our lives hang in the balance whilst uncertainty raids through every corner of our lives.
Taylor Bourassa (ON)
All of our needs, from physiological and safety needs to self-esteem, are inter-connected. With this in mind, addressing feelings of home, belonging, safety and connectedness are fundamental to our work as art therapists, especially for those who face racism, colonization, and displacement in their lived experiences.
Michelle Factor (ON)
Masks are the new reality and creating together has helped us get through these challenging times.