Expressive Arts for Those Impacted by Domestic Violence
The New Art Center has been running a weekly expressive arts group since 2014 for people who have been impacted by domestic violence. Participants learn about art history and techniques, but primarily this group serves as a place to connect with others who have had similar experiences in a mutually supportive atmosphere. The group meets for 2 hours weekly during the Fall and Spring terms. Annually, New Art provides more than 68 hours of art group therapy, led by an experienced art instructor and LMHC, for dozens of survivors of domestic abuse.
Expressive Arts Therapy for Tweens & Teens* New
In the fall of 2022, New Art launched a new expressive art therapy program for adolescents struggling with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Weekly sessions are led by registered art therapist, Erin Palazzolo-Loparo, MS-ATR, alongside New Art’s Education Coordinator. Two groups of up to 8 enrollees meet weekly during each term, which provides a safe and responsive space for tweens and teens to create, connect and share in a variety of art modalities in a confidential community environment. New participants can join at the beginning of each school-year term, fall, winter, and spring. Mindfulness and ego-building art exercises allow teens to access, express and transform feelings and struggles into meaningful art forms. The youth program currently serves 6th -8th grade grade students with participants coming from across the greater-Newton area. New Art works with counselors in the Newton Public Schools to refer students for this program whenever possible. This pilot started with a sliding scale payment option $0 - $40 per session, which is a fraction of the costs, so one is turned away for lack of funds.
*Each of the above programs have a specialized art instructor with the credentials needed to work with that particular group. These programs are organized primarily by the Education Coordinator who coordinates externally with all community partners, the students, and internally with the various art teachers and New Art’s Studio Coordinator. The programs are planned by the Education Director who supervises all of the art instruction faculty, as well as the Education Coordinator and Studio Coordinator.