234 • Introduction to Art Therapy
The 1960s and the 1970s were another period of social activism in America. At the
Pittsburgh Child Guidance Center (PCGC), half of my job involved work in the community
with children and families who were at increased risk for psychological problems—that is,
secondary prevention. In addition to developing art programs in schools for those with dis-
abilities, we also worked in poor neighborhoods.
At PCGC, the head of Social Group Work in 1969 was a woman named Mattie Addis. A
member of our expressive arts study group, Mattie invited Ellie Irwin and me to participate
in her work in poor neighborhoods, so we conducted art and drama therapy groups with
girls in their schools and in a summer day camp. For the next few summers, I coordinated
creative arts programs in two “model cities” (i.e., poor) neighborhoods. The children and
their parents who participated in the arts activities enhanced both self-image and neighbor-
hood pride.
These programs were documented in Children and the Arts: A Film About Growing (T),
designed to convey the mental health values of the arts for all children. Like an earlier film
about the creative abilities of multiply handicapped blind children (We’ll Show You What
We’re Gonna Do!) (U), it was a form of public education—another aspect of prevention. Both
films have been revised and remastered and are available with extra features on related top-
ics from the nonprofit organization, Expressive Media, Inc. (www.expressivemedia.org).
These brief but earnest efforts used art activities to allay social and psychological dis-
tress. Increasing unrest and crime in America are leading to a renewal of neighborhood arts
projects. One art therapist used film, photography and art with ghetto adolescents in diverse
settings that included not only schools, but also a gang clubhouse (Robbins, 1995). Like bas-
ketball, art is a healthy way to get kids off the streets, and away from the drugs and crime so
rampant in poor neighborhoods. When offered by trained art therapists, it can lead to the
kind of internal growth that fortifies people against such temptations.
Art Therapy in Correctional Institutions
Unfortunately, many of those who have suffered poverty or abuse do not get help. Some end
up committing crimes, for which they are usually not treated, but punished. Yet the only way
to break what can become a vicious cycle is to make the period of incarceration one of rehabil-
itation. Art in prison is inevitably a constructive way to fill time, whether offered by an educa-
tor (V) or an artist (W). When it is provided by a clinically sophisticated art therapist, it is
also a form of treatment. Most inmates will not cure themselves through creativity. But some
offenders can be helped to rebuild their lives through art therapy, which is becoming increas-
ingly available in correctional institutions (Gussak & Virshup, 1997; Liebmann, 1994).
Delinquents and criminals, while often suspicious, are also troubled individuals, who are
hungry for interest and attention. I remember making visits to the Allegheny County Jail
in the early 1970s. I was pleasantly surprised by the inmates’ enthusiastic response to the
opportunity to paint, draw, and model with clay.
A few years later I received a letter from a man in a New York State prison, begging me
to write his superintendent. He had discovered a love of oil painting, but was not being per-
mitted to pursue it. I wrote, assuring the superintendent that far from being a waste of time,
making art could be highly therapeutic, and encouraging him to hire an art therapist. As in
other areas, there were earlier precursors.
From 1940 to 1942, for example, Schaeffer-Simmern taught art to what were then called
delinquents at the New York City Reformatory (Schaeffer-Simmern, 1961). From 1963 to 1965
Tarmo Pasto (1964), a psychologist with an interest in art, had a National Institute of Mental