What do dance, studio art, and art therapy have in common? Each one requires creativity, technique, and commitment — and each one has the power to heal. At LMU, the arts are not just a place for personal expression but are also practiced with the principle of nurturing the whole person and the promotion of liberation and thus, justice.
The power of this ethos is in full force in three unique opportunities offered within LMU’s College of Communication and Fine Arts: ARTSmart, a leadership-development program for LMU students that provides underserved schoolchildren with an education in the arts; Community Dance Project, where LMU dancers and faculty visit high schools to share the transformative impact of movement through lectures, demonstrations and performances; and The Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic, which offers hands-on clinical art therapy interventions to underserved children and families as well as the broader LMU community.
ARTSmart director Teresa Lenihan says that artmaking is beneficial to all K-12 students, not only the students who are interested in going into the arts as a career. Studies have shown that making art develops skills in the areas of critical thinking, problem-solving, and spatial relationships. Because the arts have been cut out of so many grade school curricula, ARTSmart serves a vital role within its partner school, Westside Leadership Magnet, a local K–8 school where approximately 80% of the families enrolled live below the poverty level. Lenihan said, “It’s mutually beneficial to both the LMU students and to the young students that we serve. We often talk about it as being a leadership program for the LMU students, even if they’re not going into the teaching field — they still are benefiting from all the skills they’re developing while they’re teaching the kids.”
ARTSmart is in its 25th year. Throughout these years there have been many outstanding projects. Two of the many highlights are ARTSmart Art Day at the Beach — a day of ocean-side artmaking — and in the spring, when the young students come to LMU’s campus for a day of artmaking. “I don’t even know if I could describe one individual project that’s made a huge impact. It seems that whatever we just did is just the best thing ever! It’s just about being in that moment and really taking advantage of trying to get everything we can out of either that individual lesson or out of that event to give the young students a real experience that makes a difference in their lives,” Lenihan said. Bryant Keith Alexander, CFA Dean has attended both events and notes: “All of these experiences provide students with deep immersive experiences into a world of possibilities. The beach, for some young people who live in proximity but have never experienced the beach as both recreation and inspiration. And bringing these young people to campus to make art, also invites them to imagine what it could mean to attend college or the university.”
Another incredible opportunity to bring the power of artistic practice to underserved students is Community Dance Project. Over the four years that CDP has been in existence, the program has reached over 1000 high school and middle school students in Title 1 public schools in Los Angeles. CDP teaches those students how dance can be an outlet for expressing ideas, emotions, and problem solving. Participating students are in direct contact with professional choreographers by way of the dance faculty and students studying dance with the goal of becoming professionals by way of the dance majors.
The program also introduces grade school students to one of the most preeminent Black artists of our time, Bill T. Jones. Rosalynde LeBlanc, LMU dance professor and chair, says, “CDP illuminates the rigor that goes into studying dance and into making dances for students who may not otherwise have access to dance in such an intimate and behind-the-scenes way. In the performance-led demonstrations and classroom teaching activities that CDP brings, students are asked to think about their own lives, thoughts, and experiences and the ways in which movement expresses or could express those thoughts and experiences.”
For LeBlanc, there are many highlights to share about CDP, but one in particular is the writing and implementation of the Middle School Study Guide of Bill T. Jones’s “Deep Blue Sea,” a critically acclaimed evening length work that examines the notion of “we” versus feelings of alienation and disconnection from community. The dance references Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the writings of W.E.B. DuBois and James Baldwin, and follows a narrative arc from a distinct chapter of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.”
LeBlanc also described a special on-campus dance day where over 100 middle and high school LAUSD students get to spend the day with dance majors, see them perform, ask them questions about their experiences, and even make a special stop at the dance studios to take a movement class. “It is a full day on campus where they get to meet faculty, students, and even the CFA Dean who greets them when they arrive with a welcoming speech about aspiring to envision themselves at LMU, studying the arts, and becoming the next great artistic visionaries of their generation. These LAUSD at LMU Dance Days are always both fun and deeply rewarding for all of us. They really exhibit the unique power of dance to bring communities together across generations and lived experiences.” Dean Alexander adds, “It is so rewarding to see these young people come to understand dance as both artistic practice, as well as a technology of knowing and exploring culture.”
LMU is also proud to be the home of The Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic, the outreach wing of the Marital and Family Therapy program. Art therapy is an evidence-based combination of art and therapy that combines psychology with art, practiced by a professional. Although it can look a lot like an art class, art therapy is used to assess and diagnose, to create treatment plans, and to practice healthy coping skills to communicate. Established in 2007 and named after art therapy pioneer Helen B. Landgarten, the clinic is not a building, but a community of art therapists that go out into the community to provide pro bono (free) services to people that need them. There is also an emphasis on the clinic providing high-quality training programs for LMU students, especially in the 1st year practicum, where students get the experience of co-facilitating and implementing these services.
One of the six outreach programs currently offered through the clinic is the Summer Arts Workshop, where children from Dolores Mission Middle School in East L.A. come to campus to attend a week-long art therapy-based summer camp. Jessica Bianchi, assistant professor of marital and family therapy/art therapy and director of the clinic, says, “The focus is on positive youth development and cultural identity exploration. Each year we have a different theme for the kids to explore, using different types of art-making with found objects, paint, and printing. We’ve made giant paper mâché animals like a giant giraffe going down campus, going up the escalator. Every year it’s a little different, but the metaphor is always about exploring cultural identity for positive youth development,” said Bianchi. The clinic is deeply involved on-the-bluff, as well–collaborating with Wellness Wednesdays, Feel-Good Finals, the Hannon Library, Psychological Student Services, and leading workshops for University Advancement and other sectors of the university. Dean Alexander notes, “The work that is done through the interlocking efforts of the Department of Marital and Family Therapy, the Helen B Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic, and the Summer Arts workshop puts the critical and creative aspects of art-making to work in tapping into those parts of the human souls that needs healing, so that the spirit can take flight.”
ARTSmart, Community Dance Project, and the Helen B. Landgarten Art Therapy Clinic each exemplify CFA’s unique approach to the arts, combining artistic expression with ethical discourse, the search for values, social advocacy, the activist affect of art, and the pursuit of the common good. Engaging with the community beyond the bluff, while also tending to the unique needs of our LMU community is key to keeping meaning and purpose in the foreground of our lives. Terry Lenihan, director of ARTSmart, shared these thoughts: “The benefit [of these programs] for our LMU students is it starts them bridging the part of their life from when they are a student to when they are a teacher, or a leader, or a mentor, or a guide — having them get out of the student mode around their experience and start understanding on a deeper level. This really helps them bridge that transition from student to leader.”
Dean Alexander closes by stating, “The College of Communication and Fine Arts strongly believes in the practice of art as communication, and communication as art. These particular projects and programs put that theory into practice. Each invite young people to find their critical and artistic voice as to both liberate their own possibilities, as they strive to better work for social justice; for self and others.” Hence, using the arts to heal, inform, and engage the world.
