Arts programs help the poor find healing—and hidden talents
VANCOUVER, BC—Before what he calls "the dreaded alcohol" nearly ruined his life, Ian Savage was a promising painter with a Master of Fine Arts degree. Today, he is painting more than ever before. What helped turn his life around was the Union Gospel Mission's alcohol and drug recovery program—and a basic photography course called Photo 101.
"There are four or five other gentlemen who took the program with me," Savage says. "We're having a show now on February 18. I'll be showing some of my art and the others will be showing photographs."
Photo 101 is open to men involved in UGM programs. Its counterpart for women is called Art From the Heart. Both offer a form of healing simply by allowing street people who have suffered years of trauma and abuse to express themselves through art.
"There's this release that happens once some of their pain's on the page, on the canvas, or they've molded something out of clay," says outreach worker Skye Walks. "It gives them license to talk about it more freely."
Harnessing the therapeutic benefits of art is not new. But what is new, says Erinn Oxford, managing director of Parkdale Neighbourhood Church in Toronto, is that ministries to the homeless and the poor are becoming "really intentional about making it a large piece of their programming. It's gaining momentum."
Parkdale and The Gateway, a Salvation Army men's residence, recently received a grant from a collective of Christian foundations called Stronger Together to expand and develop art programs at both sites.
"We have money to pay community artists to come and animate workshops, and we're going to explore all different kinds of media—silk-screening, clay work, relief printing. You name it, we're going to try it," says Oxford.
Siloam Mission in Winnipeg's Exchange District has been offering an arts program since 2006, where people take part in drawing, painting, writing and crafting.
"It's empowering," says communications coordinator Mike Duerksen. "When you're on the street, there are so many areas in your life that you can't control. This is one thing where you are the master of your domain. You can choose which way to take it."
"And it is at that point," Oxford adds, "they can start goal-setting and doing all kinds of things, because they're regaining their voice."
Last year, UGM hired an art therapist to help the women dig deeper.
"They did a family tree that helped them map out the history of their family and different issues in their families, they did a self-portrait, and they did a piece about their emotions, tearing it up and then pasting it back together," Walks says.
The results speak for themselves. Walks knows of one woman who was homeless and is now in her own supported living unit, and a crystal meth addict who has been clean now for three years, both thanks to Art From the Heart.
"It's about art, but really it is about people," says Duerksen. "They get to build community."
Still, the program also helps some discover a gift they perhaps never knew they had.
"I know a number of people," says Oxford, "who have become very proficient and have learned the ins and outs of what it means to be a working artist. It's really a beautiful thing."
Savage agrees. "The talent I have seen is absolutely amazing. God is working some miracles," he says.
"Each week these women come, you see a little miracle happen for them," says Walks.
"I really cling to the hope that comes from experiences of transformation in people's lives—because these women could've been dead by now."
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