The Matthews, in conjunction with BHSU, is creating an amazing opportunity for residents at the Canyon Hills Center.
The Matthews Opera House & Arts Center and the Black Hills State University Psychology Department have come together to put on the art residency program, “Telling Your Story,” at the Canyon Hills Center, a youth residential psychiatric facility. The Spearfish Area Community Foundation provided a grant to The Matthews to fund a year of residencies. The funding covers materials, staff time, potential travel expenses, and the payment of artists.
About the art residency program
For the program, artists visit the Canyon Hills Center to lead the residents in an art project designed to contribute to the theme of “Telling Your Story.” From these activities, the researchers conduct surveys to evaluate the resident’s’ behavior. Previously, artistic expression has been proven to help people cope with mental illness and trauma. With this idea in mind, the hypothesis the researchers are working with is that artistic expression will cause the residents to exhibit positive behavior, and therefore prove that the arts have a therapeutic effect on the residents at the center. Data will continue to be collected two months after the program is over to observe the possible long-term effects on the residents.
The program is empirically evaluated in association with the BHSU Psychology Department. From the department, Dr. Aris Karagiorgakis serves as the principal investigator, and Patrisha Kroshus and Bailee Kulish serve as student researchers.
“The goal of the program is to encourage the use of art as a tool for self-expression,” describes Ava Sauter, community outreach manager at The Matthews. “Everyone has a story, and art can be a powerful means of finding your voice and expressing emotion. It can be very healing.”
The theme, “Telling Your Story,” was chosen to encourage personal and emotional exploration in the residents. Specifically, the theme allows for the residents to reflect on their own personal narratives and turn their stories into a form of art, whether it be visual art, music, theater, or any other kind of art medium.
“It is an honor to be working with such a wonderful organization and group of kids,” continues Sauter. “The Canyon Hills Center has an amazing staff. They create an environment that makes our work very easy, effective, and meaningful. Plus, we couldn’t ask for a better or more committed group of artists. Thus far the experience has been very powerful.”
The program started on May 31 and takes place once a week at the center. The program will continue for a year, and “hopefully for longer,” remarks Sauter.
About the artists
At this time, the artists working with the residents are:
Dr. Jo Powell, retired art teacher from Spearfish
Julie Walkins, retired theater teacher from Spearfish
Joseph Barany, retired architect and author from Spearfish
Shawn Wilson, writer, painter, assemblage artist, and gallery owner from Rapid City
Jami Lynn, singer, musician, and songwriter from Spearfish
Cheryl Halsey, painter and assemblage artist from Springfield, SD
“When first asked to assist with the art residency program at Canyon Hills, I jumped at the chance,” says Dr. Jo Powell, the first artist to work with the residents. Her project with the kids was making monuments. “These monuments were meant to symbolize their inner strengths. Especially those strengths needed to meet challenges in our personal lives,” explains Powell.
Jo has worked with the children at the Canyon Hills Center before through The Matthews’ Big Read Project. “I found the kids to be very enthusiastic when presented with an art project and that always makes for a good art experience.”
As a retired art teacher and lifelong art educator, Jo knows the importance of art in children’s lives. “Art, especially hands-on and performance art, when presented in a non-threatening way, seems to bypass most young people’s inhibition walls. Art gives them a chance to connect with something interior, most notably themselves, through the manipulation of something exterior, whether it be paints, or sculpture materials or musical instruments, or a script.”
Jo believes that there is something rewarding about making something material. When the kids had finished making their monuments they had a tangible reminder that their personal strength had seen them through one of life’s hard moments. “They were ‘still kickin’ in spite of the slings and arrows life hurled at them–and these things are to be celebrated,” she explains.
About art itself, Jo says, “Art requires involvement, commitment, and ‘soul.’ When one is asked for these things, there is no malice, no anger, no ill-temperament, no violence—there is only JOY.”
The hope for the program
The goal is that the art residency program will make a difference in the resident’s lives, and that the program will prove to be successful enough that it will continue on past the one year date. The hope is that this program will show that art is an important form of self-expression to have in one’s life.
