JL
Jamie Lanagan
  • McKinney, TX

Jamie Lanagan Traveled to Joplin to Provide Art Therapy With WWU Art Club

2011 Dec 8

William Woods University's Art Club traveled to Joplin recently to provide art activities for the tornado-ravaged community. The group spent the day with residents making art from recycled plastic bottles.

William Woods student Jamie Lanagan of McKinney, Texas., worked on the therapy project.

It was one in a series of art therapy projects WWU art students have conducted in the last few years.

After Jessica Bargate, a WWU art student from Jefferson City, heard a story on National Public Radio about suffering children in the Joplin community, she was motivated to share the story with other WWU art students.

"They had interviewed mothers of small children and it was evident that the family unit is still kind of destroyed in some way. We've always felt art was a way to help people so we decided to travel to Joplin to share this perspective with the community. We wanted them to be exposed to the healing power of art," Bargate said.

Working on the project in Joplin were students Bargate, Erica Begley, Liz Cato, Katie Dewey, Katie Gannon, Meghan Greenwalt, Jamie Lanagan, Kate Rademan, as well as Terry Martin, professor of art; Carolyn Boyer-Ferhat, assistant professor of psychology; and Tammy Carter, director of multicultural affairs.

"We had people that were really disabled and weren't capable of doing much, but what they did you could see really impacted them when they left," Martin said.

When the WWU art building burned down in 1997, the art department experienced a similar feeling of loss.

"I can only imagine what having some color back in Joplin meant for the community because of how much it meant to us after the art building burned down," said Martin.

After the art projects were finished in Joplin, the WWU Art Club took what they had designed to St. John's Regional Medical Center, which suffered a direct hit from the F5 tornado and five patients died as a result.

"The hospital is white everywhere because all the previous artwork they had was taken by the tornado. They were so excited to just have some color in their halls," said Bargate.

"You don't hear much about Joplin in the news anymore, and you kind of assume everything is fixed so traveling down there was a real eye-opener to see what still needs to be done."

While in Joplin, the art club had the opportunity to meet with Kristen Trenary Stremel, a 1991 WWU graduate who is a volunteer alumni coordinator for William Woods in the Joplin area. Stremel is a critical care nurse at St. John's Regional Medical Center.

"It was a great experience because students and professors had the opportunity to work as colleagues rather than student and teacher," said Martin. "It was a very successful trip."

Art therapy is a research-based practice that has the potential to help individuals who are dealing with psychological issues express themselves. Over the past few years, WWU has strived to expand it with each semester. Projects designed show everyone that they are capable of doing art.

Bargate said, "A lot of people think it's only for the creative or people that have done art their whole lives, but everyone can do art."

The art club frequently works with the girls from the Rosa Parks Center on campus, a home to female juvenile offenders that strives to provide them structured therapeutic treatment. Art students have also worked with patients at St. John's Mercy Hospital in St. Louis and autistic youths at Jefferson City Capital Arts.

In previous years, student artists have brought color and life to the walls of SERVE, a non-profit agency serving the poor in Fulton; to Fulton State Hospital; and to Jefferson City's new St. Mary's Creektrail Clinics, which operate as part of St. Mary's Health Center.

Curriculum is designed every week to allow the creative right side of the brain to rule over the left side of the brain which tends to fixate on stress and worry.

"We all have these elements to ourselves, but we also have a spirit. When the spirit is conditioned in the right way, it can help the body heal," said Martin. "When people engage their imagination, they really get in touch with their spirit. Too many are surviving on simple survival skills."

Meagan Roberts, a member of the art club, said, "I am going into nursing and its very heart breaking to see older people sitting in a nursing home with no one to visit with them. I would love to get involved with the patients and have them work with art as a release."

"One of the wonderful things about William Woods is that the people here are always very supportive of new organizations and new ideas," said Bargate. "When I originally got the idea, I went to Terry Martin and Tammy Carter and had instant results."