It’s important for students to find their place in Bloomington because connection with others can help combat mental health issues, Keaton Evans-Black, arts-based wellness experiences manager at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art said. This is why he created the art therapy group “A Place to Call Home” in February of this year.
“I wanted to create this group that kind of accentuates that ‘Hey if you’re not from Bloomington, if you’re not from Indiana, if you’re not from the U.S., there’s a group you can come to and just learn about this area from other people,’” Evans-Black said.
A Place to Call Home has had two meetings as of March 3. Evans-Black said while attendance has been low, it wasn’t unusual given most people aren’t yet aware of the group and where it takes place.
The group meets the first Monday of every month, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Roehm Family Art-making Studio in the Simpson Education Center on the second floor of the Eskenazi Museum of Art. Each meeting includes a planned art activity.
“It’s an activity that’s usually going to be centered on getting people to interact with each other and also explore how they interpret what home is,” Evans-Black said. “So, for example, the activity I had planned for today was creating a collage that reminds you of home so that you can have a resource that lets you know, ‘Ok these are the things I associate with home. How can I figure out how to create those things where I live right now?’”
Evans-Black said he wanted to create a resource for people because he is a big believer that connection is how people combat mental health issues. He said art therapy in a communal setting can give people someone to talk to who understands where they may be coming from. Art therapy can help with an array of issues including depression, anxiety, PTSD and pain management, according to the American Art Therapy Association.
“Art therapy taps into our brain’s natural way of processing information, which is through images,” Evans-Black said. “It allows us to eliminate the middleman of assigning words to the pictures that we think and feel in.”
At IU, 51% of students are from out of state this semester, but even the in-state students come from all 92 counties of Indiana. Evans-Black said being in a new town can be difficult because students may not always know what kinds of resources there are and what things there are to do. He said meeting other people can be a way to find these things out.
“I actually moved here from Indianapolis and I love providing opportunities for people to make new friends and just learn more about the place they’re living in,” Evans-Black said. “I know there’s not a ton of resources for that always, so I was like ‘Why not just create a group that is for that?’”
Something Evans-Black likes to call attention to is the fact that it can be hard to make friends as an adult; people typically aren’t in environments made for making friends as they get older. Because of this, he got the idea for another program called “Palette Pals,” a group specifically created for making friends.
“Palette Pals” is another art-making group that aims to create a space where people can come knowing that others are also there to make friends. This group meets the third Thursday of every month from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. also in the Roehm Family Art-making Studio.
These programs are free for anyone in the Bloomington community. No registration is required and attendees are encouraged to arrive and leave whenever is most convenient for them. More information and events can be found on the Eskenazi Museum calendar.
In the future, Evans-Black said he plans to add even more programs similar to “A Place to Call Home” and “Palette Pals.” On the top of his list is a fiber arts social group where people can chat while crocheting or knitting.
