This summer, the LMU Department of Marital and Family (Art) Therapy hosted middle school students from the Dolores Mission School for the annual Summer Arts Workshop at LMU, a week-long workshop aimed at increasing positive identity among youth from under-resourced communities in Los Angeles. Each year, a theme is chosen, and this year, student artists used elements of art to share a story by creating a graphic score.
A graphic score is the magic that happens when music and art collide, offering a visual representation of a song. With this new way of visualizing music, the young artists were invited to explore telling a story about a journey, or a time when they could overcome an obstacle. The resulting creations were performed by professional and student musicians during the Friday night exhibition for family and friends.
The Summer Arts Workshop is an art therapy-based workshop that uses intentional visual art experiences to explore and increase positive cultural identity among adolescents. The workshop is a weeklong curriculum led by art therapy graduate students, supervised by LMU MFT/Art Therapy faculty and alumni, that engages youth in a cumulative art-making task that culminates in a final exhibition for the community.
“As always with the Summer Arts Workshop, everything is an invitation, the journey artists chose to share ranged from deeply intense to lighthearted and fun,” said Jessica Bianchi, associate professor and director of the Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic. “Graphic scores explored the artists’ past and present and included elements of their family history or an experience that influenced them.”