Art Therapy Becomes Focus At Boulder Arts Week Days After Shooting
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Artists preparing to showcase their work on Friday at the start of Boulder Arts Week say they have always believed it can play an important role in healing for anyone experiencing trauma. Their art was a valuable resource this week for a community mourning the loss of 10 people in a shooting at a King Soopers in Boulder.
"I believe that trauma is something that takes time to process," said Danielle DeRoberts, an artist participating in Boulder Arts Week. "As one person, you take time to actually take care of yourself, it's just amazing what it could do on a bigger level."
Home to hundreds of arts organizations and the third largest concentration of artists in the country according to the National Endowment for the Arts, Boulder Arts Week celebrates their work and supports the community. It is a chance to bring attention to those who have struggled during the past year of the pandemic.
As the annual tradition begins just days after another mass shooting, the event takes on new meaning and may provide a needed outlet.
"When we experience trauma, it's nonverbal, it doesn't have words," said Jessica Whitesel, an art therapist and faculty member at Naropa University. "To heal from that, to work with that, it's useful to have methods and approaches that are also not based in talking and based in words."
DeRoberts says her work deals with healing from generational and emotional trauma. She tries to explore not just the dark side, but all aspects of trauma and believes the unknown can be beautiful because only living in fear can prevent growth. She spent Friday afternoon at the coworking community Kiln with other artists hanging up some of their pieces at the workspace for Boulder Arts Week.
"The core of my work is sort of internal environments," she told CBS4 on Friday. "My work definitely takes time in my process and when something happens, even recently, even my work for that to develop takes some time."
While the week of events were planned well in advance of the shooting on Monday, the impact of that day will be weighing on artists and the public. Art therapy is such a natural outlet for coping with tragedy that many have already turned to it without possibly realizing it.
"People often spontaneously want to express through images, through pictures, through flowers," Whitesel told CBS4. "Those spontaneous memorials happen often in these moments where we experience suffering."
The fence that closes off the grocery store from the public, which remains a crime scene, has become a place of healing for many in the community. Each day more people come by leaving flowers, candles, signs, and other tributes to the victims. Whitesel explains even the act of decorating flowers in a distinct pattern on the fence is just one example of art therapy.
"This is all a time where we all need a little bit more soothing, self-soothing for ourselves," she said. "We want to stay connected to that, that we want to remember the things that bring us joy."
She says even kids painting on rocks to pass the time last summer during the pandemic could be considered another form of art therapy, along with listening to music or watching dance. Especially at a time when people are wearing masks, communicating verbally has become more of a challenge so finding connection through the arts will be more common than some expect.
Whitesel says during a moment of grief, communities like Boulder don't need to necessarily seek out this kind of therapy but just be aware of it.
"Being gentle with yourself and recognizing not bombarding yourself with the images," Whitesel said.
One way she advises someone to think about the role of art therapy, put time and energy intentionally seeking out images that comfort you if there are disturbing images in your mind. Whitesel says she hopes art reminds people they are alive and that it has always been a shared experience, which could help the community reconnect with each other.
She is also mindful of the fact one painful event can link back to others, and for Colorado that means multiple mass shootings. In moments of hopelessness and voicelessness, she says art has always been a key part of expression.
"I definitely want them to take the time to sit," DeRoberts said. "I want them to just take the time to sort of slow down, to really be in that space."
She cares about how people feel about her art because it consumes her and it is based on her own feelings. She says it is not just about healing but a path toward action. During a difficult week for a community she calls home, art will not only let the public connect with each other, but let artists once again engage with their audience.
"When they look into my work, that they really look with inside themselves," she said. "Art heals, it activates, it brings people together, that's what I really believe art does."
LINK: Boulder Arts Week Calendar
Boulder Arts Week runs from March 26 - April 3, 2021.
