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Like characters in the mythical Brigadoon, my people [art therapists] from around the US and the world are converging on Cleveland for their annual convention this week. For more than two decades, my internal time clock has, in part, been set to a rhythm of this annual event in my professional life. So naturally I write from my hotel room at the conference and on the eve of yet another opening ceremony and plenary. Over the many years of attending this event, I have witnessed art therapy move with the shifting tides of psychology, psychiatry, counseling, and medicine, and of course, theories about art, creativity, and human potential. Twenty years ago, the art of people with multiple personality disorder was a hotly debated topic; today, the influences of neuroscience on art therapy practice often take center stage.

But some things never change and much of art therapy’s history remains oral and only visible at these annual gatherings. Many individuals who form the network that literally creates this field do not write about their work, but have helped form this profession through speeches, forums, visual art, and even performances. At this year’s conference, we are fortunate to have present some regional treasures who have profoundly influenced the course of art as therapy. There’s Don Jones, fourth president of the American Art Therapy Association, who envisioned some of the earliest art therapy programs in psychiatric hospitals, including the historic Menninger Clinic during the early 1950s. Later, Jones started one of the first hospital-based art therapy training programs in the US at Harding Hospital in Columbus, OH. And there’s Mickie McGraw, who co-founded The Art Therapy Studio in Cleveland with psychiatrist/artist Dr. George Streeter in 1967. Both Streeter and McGraw turned to art as a way to cope with illness-he with tuberculosis and she with polio. For the past 40 years, The Art Therapy Studio has served as model for how the creative process is at the core of health and well-being through providing art therapy to people with special needs and those seeking wellness.

Jones and McGraw hail from Ohio, a part of the US with an art therapy legacy older than the national organization itself and with a large concentration of art therapists in one region. In honor of their collective contributions, I made a short film for the opening ceremony to highlight just a few of those art therapists who have made an impact. So for those colleagues who couldn’t be in here this week or those that are just curious, take a moment, enjoy the film, and think about why "art matters."

And from my hotel room in Cleveland, minutes from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-art therapists everywhere, rock on.

© 2008 Cathy Malchiodi
www.cathymalchiodi.com