The class Military Artistic Healing, a collaboration between the healthcare services organization AspenPointe and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center’s Bemis School of Art won the Impact Award Wednesday at the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts’ annual Business for the Arts Awards in Denver.
The CBCA’s Impact Award “highlights (the) innovative use of the arts to propel business success, programs that engage employees with creativity and other community activities that support arts and business partnerships.”
“This partnership with AspenPointe and the other organizations has certainly helped us reach out to our local warriors with a program that we see making a real difference in their lives,” says the Fine Arts Center’s Director of Education Tara Thomas. “We’re honored to have the CBCA recognize the work we’re doing.”
Military men and women have described the program, which started in 2009, as a life-altering experience.
“It’s allowed me to start seeing the positives,” says Army Staff Sgt. Bobby Mathis, a member of Fort Carson’s Warrior Transition Unit.
“Military Artistic Healing Program has been an amazing journey for me and continues to do so” says current student Army Cpl. Eric Cruzat. “Kim, Tara, and the program as well as others involved have assisted me through art to continually fight my demons on a daily basis and give me hope for a better future.”
“Creative processes have the capacity to reveal, to heal and to transform anyone who’s open and willing to fully engage in the program,” says class instructor Kim Nguyen.
The 15-week multi-media art therapy class also receives support from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (which provides college credits) and the U.S. Air Force Academy Hospital (which provides art display space). The current class runs through May 6.
Military Artistic Healing was the only Colorado Springs-based program to win an award.
For more information, please contact Tara Thomas at the FAC’s Bemis school of art: (719) 477-4314 or tthomas@coloradocollege.edu