Creative Expressive Arts Program
The Creative/Expressive Arts Department provides group and individual activities using music, dance/movement, drama, painting, sculpture, and other visual arts mediums. These activities all are designed with a focus on the residents’ participation and their enjoyment of the process, and not on the outcome or product. The goal in the art activity is to achieve a therapeutic benefit by promoting wellness, managing stress, alleviating pain, expressing feelings, enhancing memory, improving communication, and promoting physical rehabilitation.
Participation in the arts can increase self-awareness, cognitive organization, feelings of confidence and self-worth, body awareness and expand one’s leisure alternatives. Overall, the arts stimulate curiosity and the sense of wonder and joy in life.
What is Needed..
Physical Materials
Given the interactive nature of the expressive arts, the major concern is the availability of art materials for ongoing projects. The Black Mountain Center Foundation provides funding to BMNTC for the purchase of various materials throughout the year as various needs arise. The Creative Arts Specialists at BMNTC are quite creative and thrifty in repurposing items for project inclusion as well.
Volunteers..
Volunteering at BMNTC can be an invaluable experience for everyone involved.. The Black Mountain Center Foundation can aid in the volunteer application and orientation process
Musically Inclined?
Are you a Musician? That’s OK most of us are not, but if you know of someone who is a musician that might enjoy spending time with residents of BMNTC or in performing you may be able to help us grow our existing network of volunteers and musicians for various events held at the facility.
Creative Expressive Arts: Visual Arts and Music
Art activities include collage-making, painting, sculpting with clay and papier-mâché, crafts, and art appreciation.
Expressive Arts is a helping and healing discipline
Art making provides distraction, relaxation and a focus on something pleasant. It also allows for expression of feelings and the telling of personal stories. The arts foster an identity that is more than one’s diagnosis, and art products help medical staff to increase their understanding of what is important to the patient, which can aid in treatment planning and implementation. Furthermore, when exposed to emotionally arousing images, patients experience a reduction of pain through the release of endorphins. Art can empower and validate people’s lives. For participants with disabilities or special needs that impact mobility and/or developmental capacities, access to the arts can be a normalizing experience by promoting socialization, self-awareness and confidence. Quantitative and qualitative research has documented the arts lead to better patient outcomes, shorter lengths of stay, reduced healthcare costs, and greater patient and family satisfaction.
(State of the field report: Arts in healthcare 2009. Washington, DC: Society for the Arts and Healthcare)