New York Expressive Arts newsletter 2006 archives
Tripping Down Memory Lane
Looking for information from a 2006 announcement? Choose from the list:
Dec 06 • Oct 06 • Aug 06 • Jul 06 • Jun 06 • May 06 • Dec 05
For announcements from 2007, click here.
For the most current news, check out What's Hot!
"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy."
— Rabindranath Tagore
This quote seems to fit the announcement of two new programs, both emanating from Canada but with worldwide implications, who aim to bring the good news of expressive arts into the world at large. The first news comes from Steve Levine in Toronto where ISIS-Canada, in collaboration with EGS, has launched a new program.
A message from Steve LevineHi Everyone,
I'm writing to let you know that our website launch at ISIS-Canada last night for the new program in Expressive Arts and Social Change at EGS was a big success. We had a substantial and enthusiastic crowd. Ellen and I introduced the program, and Ellen showed the website with a video projector.
Carrie Macleod, a CAGS grad who'll be the Teaching Associate in the program this year, gave a great presentation on her international work, particularly her time in Sierra Leone working with child war amputees, using slides that made the reality there come alive. I gave a poetry performance (I'll attach the poem to this message for those of you who are interested), and then Mark Wallace, of the Children's Peace Theatre in Toronto, also gave a presentation on his amazing work with youth at risk. There was drumming, food and drink, and a generally convivial atmosphere.
I sense that the program is generating a lot of interest and excitement, especially since we've begun to let people know that affiliated-institute students can go on to get a Masters of Expressive Arts Therapy with a Concentration in Social Change by completing one more summer session and writing a thesis (Independent Study students can also go on for the Masters by completing a course of supervised independent study instead of the affiliate training). The program can also count for one CAGS summer session for those who already have the MA or equivalent.
Please spread the word about this important new venture to your students and all those who you think might be interested. We need to bring the work of expressive arts into the world.
The other news comes from Edmonton, home base of Markus and Leilah Alexander, where they are collaborating on creating the World Arts Organization, a service organization dedicated to training volunteers who will then go out to work with underserved populations throughout the world using the arts. Be sure to have a look at both of the new websites to keep up with the latest in what is happening in the world of expressive arts.
News from EdmontonFrom the homepage of the World Arts Organization: “WAO believes that art making and the contemplative reflection upon the creative act enable more profound coming-together within the human being; that integrating a wide range of qualities and aptitudes produces balance and an ongoing, developing experience of wholeness.”
New York Expressive Arts is featured in the September issue of Art Scene, a quarterly publication of Community Arts United. You can access the article directly at www.communityartsunited.org.
News from our recent graduates of NYEA Training Program
Dawn Collins Ouellette, M.A., is pleased to announce the completion of her studio, HeArts Delight Center for Expressive Arts, located in Stuyvesant, Columbia County, N.Y. Private therapeutic expressive arts consultations are available by appointment. The 16' by 25' main room of the studio can accommodate 8 to 10 people for group art work or movement classes with ample natural light. There is a 10' by 10' room set up for individual music lessons in acoustic guitar and mountain dulcimer, vocalizing and soundwork, and Reiki energy balancing. Classes in Kripalu DansKinetics and Music Togethersong, movement, and rhythm play for preschoolers and their parents/caregivers are planned for the near future. For further information, please contact Dawn at (518) 758-8369 or email songbrd@nycap.rr.com. You can also visit http://www.expressiveartscenter.net or http://www.oletsmakemusic.com
It is good to be back from an amazing vacation on the Beara peninsula in Ireland where the beauty of the natural landscape inspired these words by Irish poet Seamus Heaney:
"You will uncode all landscapes
By this: 'things founded clean in their own shapes,
water and ground in their extremity.'"
So I am back, grounded and watered.
“The noun of self becomes a verb. This flashpoint of creation in the present moment is where work and play merge.”
— Stephen Nachmanovich
Graduation photos
Jennah Foronda-Fischer, one of the 2006 graduates of the Expressive Arts Training Program at NYEA has made three albums of photos from the graduation weekend. You can check them out at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31355137@N00/.
You also can download any pix you wish. To DOWNLOAD:
1. click on thumbnail of picture you like to enlarge it
2. above the picture, click on ALL SIZES
3. click on size you want to download (thumbnail, small, medium, large)
4. click on DOWNLOAD SIZE
You now can see photos from the anniversary event at NYEA on our web site. Just click here. Armelle Lefebvre, one of the third year graduating students form our training program and Sharon Melius, graduate who traveled from Long Island to attend, took the photos.
Well it’s official. Glass Lake Studio will now be known as New York Expressive Arts. The name may have changed but the foundation of heart-based and thoughtful exploration and accompaniment of our selves and our world using the arts remains the same. What has gone before supports what is happening now and constructs the scaffolding for what is becoming.
A large and celebratory group of old and new friends and family came together on Friday night, April 28th to remember the 20 year history of Glass Lake Studio and honor Markus Alexander and simultaneously to witness the passing of the torch and support our expressive arts community as we carry the work forward. Markus will be returning to teach in our training program and to offer master classes. Thanks to everyone who was present Friday evening. With a great deal of humility and respect for what has come before me, I welcome the opportunity to nurture and be nurtured by this work.
Congratulations to our graduating expressive arts students, a remarkable group of individuals who are completing their theoretical and experiential study of expressive arts therapy. Here they are: Karma Cloud, Dawn Collins, Jennah Foronda-Fischer, Bonnie Harlan Stankus, Armelle Lefebvre, Judith Prest and Liz Smith. Dawn and Armelle will also receive their master’s degree from the European Graduate School (EGS) in June. Short descriptions of the final projects and theses will be appearing on the website soon.
Good luck to Fran Ross who is moving to Asheville, North Carolina this month. She has been involved with Glass Lake Studio and NYEA for over 15 years and received her PhD from EGS in 2002. We wish her well as she continues her work in more southerly climes.
December 2005
DENIE'S MONTHLY UPDATES ON NYEA HAPPENINGS
Name Change!
Our name has changed. Our mission hasn't. The heartfelt ideas that have shaped Glass Lake Studio, founded by Markus Alexander in 1986, are shifting into an entity named New York Expressive Arts. Bringing art, play and imagination into the everyday lives of the community where we live. Making sense of the world through art and art making.
Markus will be visiting a couple of times a year and staying in touch with the happenings here.
Please update your bookmarks for our web site to www.newyorkexpressivearts.com. Update emails in your address book, too...denie@glasslakestudio.com, for instance, is now denie@newyorkexpressivearts.com.
• During the first week in November, amidst bright autumn sunshine and surprisingly warm temperatures, New York Expressive Arts hosted the 2005 Harvest Symposium, the annual gathering to celebrate and explore the role of intermodal expressive arts in therapy, education and coaching. Over fifty... (more) Click on "more" to read the rest of the text and view photos from the 2005 Harvest Symposium. Photos can also be accessed from the "Harvest Photos" button on the left.
• The third year students in our Expressive Arts Training program welcomed Barbara Thompson's graduate level Occupational Therapy class to the Albany studio... (more) Click on "more" to read the rest of the text and view photos from the OT visit. Photos can also be accessed from the "People Gallery" button on the left.
• Denie Whalen, Director of New York Expressive Arts in Albany, NY and Susan Moran, Director of the Marjorie Doyle Rockwell Center, an affiliate of the Eddy, a division of Northeast Health located in Cohoes, NY, will lead a team of artists to implement a year-long grant from the NYS Department of Health to bring a program of intermodal expressive arts to persons with memory impairment and Alzheimer's Disease. "The design of this proposal springs from our deep trust in the power of the arts in situations of grief and loss and the effectiveness of intermodal expressive arts methods in reaching out to persons with memory impairment and in giving them ways to stay engaged with their world." The program will include professionally facilitated weekly arts-based work in small groups, reinforced during the week by trained facility staff using storytelling, movement, visual art and writing. Our interest in is what happens in the daily life of the residents and staff when the arts are introduced in a structured way to this population. We will look at what happens to basic self care abilities, socialization skills and the quality of interpersonal relationships between residents and also residents and staff.
Gift CertificatesGift certificates are now available for an artful holiday gift. Call the Studio at (518) 434-2412 or e-mail denie@newyorkexpressivearts.com.