Portland Celebrates Creative Arts Therapy Week
Nurturing Creativity and Health

News Release
Portland Creative Arts Therapies Week Activities

Portland ― Local creative arts therapists have teamed up to produce Portland’s Creative Arts Therapy Week 2010, from March 20 to March 28. Portland’s rich and diverse smorgasbord of activities coincides with the national celebration of Creative Arts Therapies Week, promoted by the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations. The complete schedule of Portland’s Creative Arts Therapies (CAT) Week activities and registration information are posted online at www.creativeartstherapiespdx.org. Just follow the events link.
Creative arts therapies have been practiced in the United States for over 50 years to benefit people of all ages and various physical and emotional life challenges. The experiential public workshops featured in during Creative Arts Therapies Week showcase the therapeutic applications of various creative arts disciplines both for personal insights as well as for working in health care, education, and community settings. Creative arts therapies disciplines, including visual arts, dance/movement, music, poetry and psychodrama, all offer effective ways to promote health, social functioning, positive behavior changes, self-awareness, and mind-body integration.

Among the highlights of this year’s Portland celebration are workshops in authentic movement, creative dance, psychodrama, impressionism, improvisational theater and phototherapy. Shows are also in the mix. On March 26 and 27 at 8 p.m., the Brooklyn Bay theater group presents this season’s final performances of the ensemble piece, Tao Soup. (See www.thebrooklynbay.org for details.) On Saturday, March 27 at 7 p.m., FreeArts NW, a program of the Charitable Partnership Fund, will host a debut screening of films on the theme of “cultural brokenness” by young filmmakers with at-risk backgrounds. This program, with support from the City of Portland Office of Violence Prevention, takes place at Mosaic, 1832 NE 39th Avenue in Portland. The artwork of cancer patients, their families and hospital staff who support them is on display this March at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center, 1130 NW 22nd Avenue, Building 3 in Portland. The theme of the exhibit is personal reflections on the experience of cancer.

As a culmination to Creative Arts Therapies Week, the Portland Creative Arts Therapies (CAT) Coalition is hosting an open meeting on Sunday, March 28 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the upstairs Community Room of the People’s Food Co-op at 3029 SE 21st Avenue in Portland (between Powell Boulevard and Division Street). The Portland CAT Coalition welcomes creative arts therapists, health workers, and those interested in using creative arts for healing. Focus is on peer networking, community outreach, public health policy advocacy, and in-service trainings for health and education professionals.

The producers of Portland’s Creative Arts Therapy Week 2010 are professional creative arts therapists working in the fields of art therapy, dance/movement therapy, music therapy, and psychodrama. The purpose of their collaboration is to promote awareness of the therapeutic value and significance of this discipline through experiential workshops led by local creative arts professionals.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

CREATIVE ARTS THERAPIES WEEK 2010 EVENTS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Archives:

Creative Arts Therapies Week 2009

Creative Arts Therapies Week 2008

Creative Arts Therapies Week 2007

Creative Arts Therapies Week 2006

Creative Arts Therapies Week 2005

Creative Arts Therapies Week 2004