Social Art & Art Psychotherapy in Beirut
Lee Simmons, May 2013
First published by Goldsmiths University
The Marion Milner Award
This project would not have been possible without support from the Marion Milner Award – a grant which is awarded every year to one student graduating from the Art Psychotherapy Masters programme, at Goldsmiths University of the Arts, London.
The award is provided by the family of the late Marion Milner, who was a pioneer of art psychotherapy. Graduates submit proposals for art psychotherapy interventions in countries where it is not formally established as a practice.
Three staff members independently select a project of their choice before a final project is selected for the grant.
The grant is for £1000.00 and is supported with the backing of the University. The recipient needs to be resourceful in finding match funding and in-kind support to make their project possible. The grant provides a solid base for this endeavour - providing a strong project outline, secured financial and institutional backing and academic context to influence potential supporters.
About this report
I have based this report around the structure of my original proposal – including what was and was not achieved. Outcomes such as participation numbers, details of workshops and other practical elements are covered. I have also included my own personal thoughts and observations, and an overview of the potential future developments, limitations and shifts in context. This is changing all of the time, but it can be taken as accurate at the time of writing this report.
Overview
My original proposal was to go to Beirut to explore art psychotherapy and social art, as well as deliver art psychotherapy with two organisations.
While I was developing my proposal, I was helped by Mohammad Hafeda, co-founder of Febrik, to make contact with partner organisations in Lebanon - Skoun, Lebanese Addictions Center, Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation (GKCF), and Sanayeh House.
In March 2012, I travelled to Beirut for a period of two months, organised around a new art psychotherapy and community development based job I was due to start in May 2012.
So much happened in those two months and, with very little experience of the Middle East, I faced a steep cultural learning curve, particularly due to the situation in Lebanon and neighbouring Syria at the time. I had not been to Beirut before, and I believe it was my open mind and unbiased approach being a first time visitor that was so helpful in providing freedom to the client group and for the people I met in Beirut. I often thought of a nutshell description of mindfulness - ‘an open hearted moment to moment non-judgemental awareness’, and I sought this state of mind in my day-to-day living. This felt enabling in helping me form new relationships with diverse people, many with strong views and troubled backgrounds.
I first started working in the GKCF pre-school for children with disabilities in Mar Elias (Palestinian) refugee camp, and with adults struggling with addiction from across Lebanon in Skoun. I co-ran groups with Sahar Hafda, a Lebanese artist and facilitator who had a good understanding of, and a strong interest in art psychotherapy. She was able to translate between English and Arabic and became someone I could trust and communicate with in depth.
Had there been the opportunity for her to train as an art psychotherapist she would likely have taken it, but there is not such course in Lebanon to date.
At the time that I was in Beirut, the Syrian revolution had been active for one year and was becoming increasingly violent. Many of the people I got to know were Syrian artists, humanitarian workers and revolutionaries, as well as civilians who wanted to escape the violence and dictatorship or were unable to remain in the country for different reasons. These reasons were always linked to the political problems. They seemed interested in and supportive of the work I was doing. I think it was quite refreshing for them to have someone new around who was doing something different and who was placed completely outside of the conflict.
My accommodation was at Sanayeh House. It turned out that this was a previous artists residence (on arriving I thought it still was), which now housed a variety of people. I was made to feel very at home there. My bedroom became my studio and I also worked in the communal space. The people who I shared the building with were very warm and interesting, we used the shared space for work, meals, parties, talks, and for open painting sessions.
The organisations that I worked with provided art materials, space, staff, and supervision in kind. They also undertook the administrative duties and coordination of my work once we had established the session times. I did not charge them and I paid for my own transport, food and general living expenses. Sahar Hafda also worked voluntarily. The Marion Milner award covered my flights, materials for the open art sessions (which I left with participants), and my rent at Sanayeh House at a discounted rate. I was clear with the organisations of the time restrictions, and that future longer-term work would need to be paid at a living wage.
The two months I spend in Beirut helped focus my hazy view of the country. When I was not working, I explored the Lebanese countryside - swimming in the sea, partying in the mountains, rock climbing, walking, and going to see historic sites. The contact I had with the friends that I made and other people I met along the way taught me a lot about the geographical and political context. I read about the contemporary history of the Middle East with a focus on Lebanon. The client work communicated circumstances in a way that I was naturally receptive to, and professionals also helped to fill in the gaps by providing me with information of the cultural and political context of present day Lebanon, and more specifically Beirut.
On my return to the UK, I tried to organise a return trip to present the work and hold a follow-up focus group. This was very difficult over the internet, so it wasn’t until ten months later, in January 2013, that I returned on a self-funded trip. Many things had changed but much was also the same. Sanayeh House was no longer available for rent, and many of the people I had socialised with were knuckling down trying to establish new lives, with a view to remaining outside of Syria for longer than they had hoped. It was clear that the Revolution, now labelled Civil War was not ending soon. Lebanon was under pressure from the influx of refugees from Syria, and this was evident in denser traffic, an edgier atmosphere, greater racism towards Syrians, and less tourism. There had also been fighting and some bombs in the country, raising fears that Lebanon might be pulled into the crisis and face war yet again.
During my second visit, Nahla Ghandour (Director of the pre-school), and I discussed the potential for running an introductory art psychotherapy training course to help people use art in the work they already do (at GKCF and wider). We also thought about the creation of a permanent art psychotherapy post in the future. My previous supervisor at Skoun suggested there would be work for me if I returned, but advised building some financial reserves first, as wages do not easily meet the cost of living in Beirut.
Art therapy session work
The project work went better than I could have hoped for. Things that I had planned to do but had not been able to set up from London seemed to click into place. Arrangements I had made developed quickly and smoothly. Within two weeks of arriving, I was running six art therapy groups with children and adults.
The organisations I worked with provided materials and staff. It was the first time that these organisations had provided art psychotherapy, and they were very welcoming and efficient in hosting the programmes. This included the provision of consistent workspaces, supervision, and secure, confidential storage for the artwork.
From the 19th of March 2012 to the 7th of May 2012, I ran six group sessions each week. At Skoun there were two adult groups a week, with a maximum of eight people in each.
At GKCF Mar Elias, I worked with four groups, holding four sessions per week, and working with 20 children. This client group consisted of very young children aged three to eight years old with multiple disabilities. My aim was for the children to stimulate their visual senses and senses of touch in a therapeutic way, and for the staff team of seven, to learn methods for using art in their sessions. The art therapy was light and sensory based rather than psychodynamic. This group work approach allowed me to reach the most people possible in the short time that I had.
I also held social art workshops towards the end of the residency, which provided artwork that could be exhibited. This painting project enabled staff to work in a more active and directive way than in the art psychotherapy sessions; and children from other schools, and from across the camp were able to take part. Up to 60 children and seven staff worked on three large canvases with a variety of materials over two days.
Content of the sessions: analysing the paintings
Clients read into their own and each other’s work naturally in the adult group. Sahar Hafda and I would share observations and unpick some of the dynamics that had taken place in the sessions directly after them, and with the artwork still on the wall. I would also discuss the work with my clinical supervisor at Skoun on a weekly basis.
In my work with children, it was not easy to communicate to the staff that my role is not to interpret the final work as much as to engage the children in the therapeutic process. There was a great deal of communicative activity within sessions, but it was not as simple as black = sad, red= angry. The way that the children would manipulate the materials and the helpers was as much the therapeutic process as the artwork.
We explored these ideas in weekly staff meetings and made leaps in developing understanding of each others working methods and aims.
Social art in Beirut - context
In England, one of the challenges of working as a professional artist and therapist is the stigma / snobbery received from the field of Fine Art. This was also the case in Lebanon, where it was arguably worse. It was possible to link with humanitarian organisations as an art therapist but I found it difficult to communicate as an artist in my own right if people knew of the therapeutic work. This was an experience I had in Beirut, partially evidenced when my offer of a presentation about the project to a University art department was re-directed towards the nursing course.
In the art market, there is a great deal of branding and I think people often endeavour to present themselves as providing elite art: contemporary, intellectual, and glamorous Art. To have an affiliation with therapy might hinder this, which is understandable although also sad and wasteful. A curator working internationally once said to me that the (commercial) art world is ‘based on snobbery’, and he was right. Unfortunately this attitude increases divisions and discourages, or becomes an obstruction to, working in more than one role and across disciplines.
It is worth noting that on my second visit, when I was not working, I heard more about social art organisations and grass roots collectives. I hope to explore these further in the future. It is also relevant to note that the galleries were increasingly filling with Syrian artists, many of whom were re-settling in Beirut and whose galleries that were based in Syria had closed, or been destroyed by bombings.
During the first visit I took part in ‘Creative Wednesday’. Carla Dib whom I met at a party opened her house every Wednesday evening for art making. She did this for two years and recently made it more of a studio-based project. People would turn up to paint, party, and draw together until the early hours. This was her response to hearing complaints that there was nothing to do in Beirut but go to the pub.
Early on in my stay I visited Ashkal Alwan, the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, and was invited to use the library whenever I liked. This was helpful as it was a peaceful space with a variety of interesting, contemporary art books. By coincidence I also met artists undertaking the residency in Beirut. Our work did not overlap practically but there was a sharing of experience. I also visited VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts Association), where I was shown documentation of community art projects and books they had created with children, and we talked about the possibility of collaborating on some painting workshops in the future.
Creative response
The following is a description of some of the creative activities I undertook whilst working on the SA&T in Beirut project, including extracts from my blog:
9 60x30cm paintings
‘Yesterday I had a ‘Painting frenzy’, which followed a trip on the school bus around different refugee camps as the children got dropped home. It is telling that in my process notes I only stated that I went to these camps and it was a valuable thing to do. Expected more of a reaction than that. But later when nine fairly substantial paintings seemed to make themselves it was clear that there had been an impact.’
Social art piece in the camp
‘The last week in Lebanon we did the social art project at Mar Elias refugee camp, in the art room rather than the pre-school. This resulted in three highly decorative mixed media group paintings, that will be exhibited in the summer as part of the Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation 40th commemoration. Children from other schools took part, as well as those from the camp generally. It also enabled the teachers to be involved, which was a positive way to end as I feared they had felt excluded. After we realized that the style of their work was a clash with the nature of art psychotherapy, they had stopped participating in sessions to avoid confusing the children and methods.‘
It was therefore significant to end with a shared project, which could involve more directive methods familiar to teachers, and be shown in public space. The canvases were exhibited at Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation Centers from June, 2012.
Open art groups
As well as running the art psychotherapy sessions, I held open art groups at Sanayeh House. Here anyone could come and make art. This was largely prompted by a conversation with a friend I met on my first day in Lebanon. Over coffee on the balcony on my first morning, he asked me what I do, then gripping the table with both hands looked me in the eye and said “I need this art therapy”. I explained that due to boundaries therapists do not tend to work with their friends, and we seemed to be becoming friends, but throughout my time there the conversations persisted and he felt it was unfair that he could not join the art therapy because we knew each other socially.
We started painting and drawing together at Sanayeh House and then I began to hold informal open art groups. The art making sessions became increasingly helpful and I allowed a blurring of the boundaries between work and social time in this respect. I would also paint and draw in these sessions, which I would not do in an art psychotherapy session. We also had food, drink, and acoustic music whilst making the visual art. The work that I made was not included in my portfolio of paintings, even as a creative response.
The clients that I worked with at Skoun were sometimes in the pubs that I would go to in the evening. We agreed not to speak about the group in the pub (or the pub in the group!). It was unusual to be drinking and taking part in a drumming circle with a client from an addiction centre. Often if I commented on such things, people would reply “welcome to Beirut”.
Presentations and discussion groups
Throughout this project I had ongoing discussions with people from art, health, and relief work backgrounds; but also with barmen, journalists, activists, DJ’s, and professors – very wide ranging friendships and alliances sprang up naturally. To communicate about the work more widely in a formal sense I made presentations at Sanayeh House, Skoun, and Mar Elias Refugee Camp.
The first presentation at Sanayeh House did not go according to plan. My laptop broke, the internet went down, we had a power cut, it poured with rain, and there were about three people there. We made the most of the situation by getting to know each other in a social context instead.
The second presentation that I made at Sanayeh house was small, but the work was communicated in a close group. A third presentation was well attended, with lively discussion and a varied audience. Many of these people knew each other, and me by that point. Following this I experienced one of the most profound friendships I have ever been lucky enough to encounter. A member of the Free Syrian Army spoke to me about the possibility of working with refugees in Turkey, and gave me an insight into his world while showing understanding of and respect for my work. It is interesting that one of the people most open to the art and therapy had a technical background. Without training he had delivered psychological support to people who had lost everything, in the instant it happened, and he committed himself completely to the cause of freedom. He inspired me to believe in the work that I do and continue to talk from within, from the heart, regardless of potential ridicule.
Following the art therapy work at GKCF Mar Elias, and Skoun, I made presentations to staff groups where we were able to talk thought the process and what art therapy is about in more detail. I also made some feedback forms for the staff at GKCF and the patients at Skoun. On all sides it seemed that there was a need and receptiveness to have a longer-term art psychotherapy provision in Beirut.
Project outputs
Art Psychotherapy sessions: 54
Art Psychotherapy clients: 20 children, 10 adults
Presentations: 6, at 4 venues
Artworks: 10 personal paintings, graphite storyboard, 3 paintings derived from the storyboard, blog, process notes, photography, social art paintings
Social art: 40 children and 5 staff (GKCF decorative paintings), and several adults in open painting sessions
Work included in GKCF exhibitions
Proposal for staff training, based on art psychotherapy in Beirut
Legacy
Following the trip I started to apply for funding to re-visit and present the project, as well as run experiential sessions. This involved confirming with venues, which was more difficult than anticipated. In Beirut, I found people to be very accommodating and keen to work with me. But before arriving there it had been fairly impossible to confirm plans remotely, hence I turned up with a number of things still to be agreed.
On return, I hit the same problem of not being able to make firm agreements with individuals or organisations, which meant that I was unable to apply for funding to continue with the project. After ten months of exchanging emails with two arts organisations, I self funded a short trip to Lebanon and considered this a holiday. Once again, as soon as I arrived opportunities to work presented themselves.
This time on return to England I communicated with GKCF about future developments, and proposals are being created in partnership.
Without doubt, art psychotherapy is needed and wanted in Lebanon. The arts are very alive there and therapy is also moving forward. Art is often incorporated into psychological work, but people are thirsty to do this more directly.
Images of art therapy work:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeasimmons/sets/72157629812752628/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeasimmons/sets/72157629410354330/
Bibliography
- Narrating Beirut from it’s Borderlines, edited by Hiba Bou Akar and Mohammad Hafaeda, 2011,Heinrich-Boell-Foundation Middle East (2011)
- A history of the Middle East, from antiquity to present day, Georges Corm, 2009, Garnet Publishing Ltd (2009)
- A life of one’s own, Joanna Field / Marion Milner, 1934 Virago Press Ltd (1952)
- Beware of Small States, Lebanon Battleground of the Middle East, David Hirst, 2010, Faber and Faber (2010)
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley,1931, Penguin Books (1955)
- Men in the Sun and other Palestinian stories, Ghassan Kanafani, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. (1999)
- The Arabs: a history, Eugene Rogan 2012, Penguin Books (2012)
- Against all odds? The political potential of Beirut’s art scene, Linda Simon & Katrin Pakizer, 2013, Heinrich-Boell-Foundation Middle East http://delfinafoundation.com/about/mission/ (2013)
Lee Simmons, May 2013
First published by Goldsmiths University
The Marion Milner Award
This project would not have been possible without support from the Marion Milner Award – a grant which is awarded every year to one student graduating from the Art Psychotherapy Masters programme, at Goldsmiths University of the Arts, London.
The award is provided by the family of the late Marion Milner, who was a pioneer of art psychotherapy. Graduates submit proposals for art psychotherapy interventions in countries where it is not formally established as a practice.
Three staff members independently select a project of their choice before a final project is selected for the grant.
The grant is for £1000.00 and is supported with the backing of the University. The recipient needs to be resourceful in finding match funding and in-kind support to make their project possible. The grant provides a solid base for this endeavour - providing a strong project outline, secured financial and institutional backing and academic context to influence potential supporters.
About this report
I have based this report around the structure of my original proposal – including what was and was not achieved. Outcomes such as participation numbers, details of workshops and other practical elements are covered. I have also included my own personal thoughts and observations, and an overview of the potential future developments, limitations and shifts in context. This is changing all of the time, but it can be taken as accurate at the time of writing this report.
Overview
My original proposal was to go to Beirut to explore art psychotherapy and social art, as well as deliver art psychotherapy with two organisations.
While I was developing my proposal, I was helped by Mohammad Hafeda, co-founder of Febrik, to make contact with partner organisations in Lebanon - Skoun, Lebanese Addictions Center, Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation (GKCF), and Sanayeh House.
In March 2012, I travelled to Beirut for a period of two months, organised around a new art psychotherapy and community development based job I was due to start in May 2012.
So much happened in those two months and, with very little experience of the Middle East, I faced a steep cultural learning curve, particularly due to the situation in Lebanon and neighbouring Syria at the time. I had not been to Beirut before, and I believe it was my open mind and unbiased approach being a first time visitor that was so helpful in providing freedom to the client group and for the people I met in Beirut. I often thought of a nutshell description of mindfulness - ‘an open hearted moment to moment non-judgemental awareness’, and I sought this state of mind in my day-to-day living. This felt enabling in helping me form new relationships with diverse people, many with strong views and troubled backgrounds.
I first started working in the GKCF pre-school for children with disabilities in Mar Elias (Palestinian) refugee camp, and with adults struggling with addiction from across Lebanon in Skoun. I co-ran groups with Sahar Hafda, a Lebanese artist and facilitator who had a good understanding of, and a strong interest in art psychotherapy. She was able to translate between English and Arabic and became someone I could trust and communicate with in depth.
Had there been the opportunity for her to train as an art psychotherapist she would likely have taken it, but there is not such course in Lebanon to date.
At the time that I was in Beirut, the Syrian revolution had been active for one year and was becoming increasingly violent. Many of the people I got to know were Syrian artists, humanitarian workers and revolutionaries, as well as civilians who wanted to escape the violence and dictatorship or were unable to remain in the country for different reasons. These reasons were always linked to the political problems. They seemed interested in and supportive of the work I was doing. I think it was quite refreshing for them to have someone new around who was doing something different and who was placed completely outside of the conflict.
My accommodation was at Sanayeh House. It turned out that this was a previous artists residence (on arriving I thought it still was), which now housed a variety of people. I was made to feel very at home there. My bedroom became my studio and I also worked in the communal space. The people who I shared the building with were very warm and interesting, we used the shared space for work, meals, parties, talks, and for open painting sessions.
The organisations that I worked with provided art materials, space, staff, and supervision in kind. They also undertook the administrative duties and coordination of my work once we had established the session times. I did not charge them and I paid for my own transport, food and general living expenses. Sahar Hafda also worked voluntarily. The Marion Milner award covered my flights, materials for the open art sessions (which I left with participants), and my rent at Sanayeh House at a discounted rate. I was clear with the organisations of the time restrictions, and that future longer-term work would need to be paid at a living wage.
The two months I spend in Beirut helped focus my hazy view of the country. When I was not working, I explored the Lebanese countryside - swimming in the sea, partying in the mountains, rock climbing, walking, and going to see historic sites. The contact I had with the friends that I made and other people I met along the way taught me a lot about the geographical and political context. I read about the contemporary history of the Middle East with a focus on Lebanon. The client work communicated circumstances in a way that I was naturally receptive to, and professionals also helped to fill in the gaps by providing me with information of the cultural and political context of present day Lebanon, and more specifically Beirut.
On my return to the UK, I tried to organise a return trip to present the work and hold a follow-up focus group. This was very difficult over the internet, so it wasn’t until ten months later, in January 2013, that I returned on a self-funded trip. Many things had changed but much was also the same. Sanayeh House was no longer available for rent, and many of the people I had socialised with were knuckling down trying to establish new lives, with a view to remaining outside of Syria for longer than they had hoped. It was clear that the Revolution, now labelled Civil War was not ending soon. Lebanon was under pressure from the influx of refugees from Syria, and this was evident in denser traffic, an edgier atmosphere, greater racism towards Syrians, and less tourism. There had also been fighting and some bombs in the country, raising fears that Lebanon might be pulled into the crisis and face war yet again.
During my second visit, Nahla Ghandour (Director of the pre-school), and I discussed the potential for running an introductory art psychotherapy training course to help people use art in the work they already do (at GKCF and wider). We also thought about the creation of a permanent art psychotherapy post in the future. My previous supervisor at Skoun suggested there would be work for me if I returned, but advised building some financial reserves first, as wages do not easily meet the cost of living in Beirut.
Art therapy session work
The project work went better than I could have hoped for. Things that I had planned to do but had not been able to set up from London seemed to click into place. Arrangements I had made developed quickly and smoothly. Within two weeks of arriving, I was running six art therapy groups with children and adults.
The organisations I worked with provided materials and staff. It was the first time that these organisations had provided art psychotherapy, and they were very welcoming and efficient in hosting the programmes. This included the provision of consistent workspaces, supervision, and secure, confidential storage for the artwork.
From the 19th of March 2012 to the 7th of May 2012, I ran six group sessions each week. At Skoun there were two adult groups a week, with a maximum of eight people in each.
At GKCF Mar Elias, I worked with four groups, holding four sessions per week, and working with 20 children. This client group consisted of very young children aged three to eight years old with multiple disabilities. My aim was for the children to stimulate their visual senses and senses of touch in a therapeutic way, and for the staff team of seven, to learn methods for using art in their sessions. The art therapy was light and sensory based rather than psychodynamic. This group work approach allowed me to reach the most people possible in the short time that I had.
I also held social art workshops towards the end of the residency, which provided artwork that could be exhibited. This painting project enabled staff to work in a more active and directive way than in the art psychotherapy sessions; and children from other schools, and from across the camp were able to take part. Up to 60 children and seven staff worked on three large canvases with a variety of materials over two days.
Content of the sessions: analysing the paintings
Clients read into their own and each other’s work naturally in the adult group. Sahar Hafda and I would share observations and unpick some of the dynamics that had taken place in the sessions directly after them, and with the artwork still on the wall. I would also discuss the work with my clinical supervisor at Skoun on a weekly basis.
In my work with children, it was not easy to communicate to the staff that my role is not to interpret the final work as much as to engage the children in the therapeutic process. There was a great deal of communicative activity within sessions, but it was not as simple as black = sad, red= angry. The way that the children would manipulate the materials and the helpers was as much the therapeutic process as the artwork.
We explored these ideas in weekly staff meetings and made leaps in developing understanding of each others working methods and aims.
Social art in Beirut - context
In England, one of the challenges of working as a professional artist and therapist is the stigma / snobbery received from the field of Fine Art. This was also the case in Lebanon, where it was arguably worse. It was possible to link with humanitarian organisations as an art therapist but I found it difficult to communicate as an artist in my own right if people knew of the therapeutic work. This was an experience I had in Beirut, partially evidenced when my offer of a presentation about the project to a University art department was re-directed towards the nursing course.
In the art market, there is a great deal of branding and I think people often endeavour to present themselves as providing elite art: contemporary, intellectual, and glamorous Art. To have an affiliation with therapy might hinder this, which is understandable although also sad and wasteful. A curator working internationally once said to me that the (commercial) art world is ‘based on snobbery’, and he was right. Unfortunately this attitude increases divisions and discourages, or becomes an obstruction to, working in more than one role and across disciplines.
It is worth noting that on my second visit, when I was not working, I heard more about social art organisations and grass roots collectives. I hope to explore these further in the future. It is also relevant to note that the galleries were increasingly filling with Syrian artists, many of whom were re-settling in Beirut and whose galleries that were based in Syria had closed, or been destroyed by bombings.
During the first visit I took part in ‘Creative Wednesday’. Carla Dib whom I met at a party opened her house every Wednesday evening for art making. She did this for two years and recently made it more of a studio-based project. People would turn up to paint, party, and draw together until the early hours. This was her response to hearing complaints that there was nothing to do in Beirut but go to the pub.
Early on in my stay I visited Ashkal Alwan, the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, and was invited to use the library whenever I liked. This was helpful as it was a peaceful space with a variety of interesting, contemporary art books. By coincidence I also met artists undertaking the residency in Beirut. Our work did not overlap practically but there was a sharing of experience. I also visited VAPA (Visual and Performing Arts Association), where I was shown documentation of community art projects and books they had created with children, and we talked about the possibility of collaborating on some painting workshops in the future.
Creative response
The following is a description of some of the creative activities I undertook whilst working on the SA&T in Beirut project, including extracts from my blog:
9 60x30cm paintings
‘Yesterday I had a ‘Painting frenzy’, which followed a trip on the school bus around different refugee camps as the children got dropped home. It is telling that in my process notes I only stated that I went to these camps and it was a valuable thing to do. Expected more of a reaction than that. But later when nine fairly substantial paintings seemed to make themselves it was clear that there had been an impact.’
Social art piece in the camp
‘The last week in Lebanon we did the social art project at Mar Elias refugee camp, in the art room rather than the pre-school. This resulted in three highly decorative mixed media group paintings, that will be exhibited in the summer as part of the Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation 40th commemoration. Children from other schools took part, as well as those from the camp generally. It also enabled the teachers to be involved, which was a positive way to end as I feared they had felt excluded. After we realized that the style of their work was a clash with the nature of art psychotherapy, they had stopped participating in sessions to avoid confusing the children and methods.‘
It was therefore significant to end with a shared project, which could involve more directive methods familiar to teachers, and be shown in public space. The canvases were exhibited at Ghassan Kanafani Cultural Foundation Centers from June, 2012.
Open art groups
As well as running the art psychotherapy sessions, I held open art groups at Sanayeh House. Here anyone could come and make art. This was largely prompted by a conversation with a friend I met on my first day in Lebanon. Over coffee on the balcony on my first morning, he asked me what I do, then gripping the table with both hands looked me in the eye and said “I need this art therapy”. I explained that due to boundaries therapists do not tend to work with their friends, and we seemed to be becoming friends, but throughout my time there the conversations persisted and he felt it was unfair that he could not join the art therapy because we knew each other socially.
We started painting and drawing together at Sanayeh House and then I began to hold informal open art groups. The art making sessions became increasingly helpful and I allowed a blurring of the boundaries between work and social time in this respect. I would also paint and draw in these sessions, which I would not do in an art psychotherapy session. We also had food, drink, and acoustic music whilst making the visual art. The work that I made was not included in my portfolio of paintings, even as a creative response.
The clients that I worked with at Skoun were sometimes in the pubs that I would go to in the evening. We agreed not to speak about the group in the pub (or the pub in the group!). It was unusual to be drinking and taking part in a drumming circle with a client from an addiction centre. Often if I commented on such things, people would reply “welcome to Beirut”.
Presentations and discussion groups
Throughout this project I had ongoing discussions with people from art, health, and relief work backgrounds; but also with barmen, journalists, activists, DJ’s, and professors – very wide ranging friendships and alliances sprang up naturally. To communicate about the work more widely in a formal sense I made presentations at Sanayeh House, Skoun, and Mar Elias Refugee Camp.
The first presentation at Sanayeh House did not go according to plan. My laptop broke, the internet went down, we had a power cut, it poured with rain, and there were about three people there. We made the most of the situation by getting to know each other in a social context instead.
The second presentation that I made at Sanayeh house was small, but the work was communicated in a close group. A third presentation was well attended, with lively discussion and a varied audience. Many of these people knew each other, and me by that point. Following this I experienced one of the most profound friendships I have ever been lucky enough to encounter. A member of the Free Syrian Army spoke to me about the possibility of working with refugees in Turkey, and gave me an insight into his world while showing understanding of and respect for my work. It is interesting that one of the people most open to the art and therapy had a technical background. Without training he had delivered psychological support to people who had lost everything, in the instant it happened, and he committed himself completely to the cause of freedom. He inspired me to believe in the work that I do and continue to talk from within, from the heart, regardless of potential ridicule.
Following the art therapy work at GKCF Mar Elias, and Skoun, I made presentations to staff groups where we were able to talk thought the process and what art therapy is about in more detail. I also made some feedback forms for the staff at GKCF and the patients at Skoun. On all sides it seemed that there was a need and receptiveness to have a longer-term art psychotherapy provision in Beirut.
Project outputs
Art Psychotherapy sessions: 54
Art Psychotherapy clients: 20 children, 10 adults
Presentations: 6, at 4 venues
Artworks: 10 personal paintings, graphite storyboard, 3 paintings derived from the storyboard, blog, process notes, photography, social art paintings
Social art: 40 children and 5 staff (GKCF decorative paintings), and several adults in open painting sessions
Work included in GKCF exhibitions
Proposal for staff training, based on art psychotherapy in Beirut
Legacy
Following the trip I started to apply for funding to re-visit and present the project, as well as run experiential sessions. This involved confirming with venues, which was more difficult than anticipated. In Beirut, I found people to be very accommodating and keen to work with me. But before arriving there it had been fairly impossible to confirm plans remotely, hence I turned up with a number of things still to be agreed.
On return, I hit the same problem of not being able to make firm agreements with individuals or organisations, which meant that I was unable to apply for funding to continue with the project. After ten months of exchanging emails with two arts organisations, I self funded a short trip to Lebanon and considered this a holiday. Once again, as soon as I arrived opportunities to work presented themselves.
This time on return to England I communicated with GKCF about future developments, and proposals are being created in partnership.
Without doubt, art psychotherapy is needed and wanted in Lebanon. The arts are very alive there and therapy is also moving forward. Art is often incorporated into psychological work, but people are thirsty to do this more directly.
Images of art therapy work:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeasimmons/sets/72157629812752628/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/leeasimmons/sets/72157629410354330/
Bibliography
- Narrating Beirut from it’s Borderlines, edited by Hiba Bou Akar and Mohammad Hafaeda, 2011,Heinrich-Boell-Foundation Middle East (2011)
- A history of the Middle East, from antiquity to present day, Georges Corm, 2009, Garnet Publishing Ltd (2009)
- A life of one’s own, Joanna Field / Marion Milner, 1934 Virago Press Ltd (1952)
- Beware of Small States, Lebanon Battleground of the Middle East, David Hirst, 2010, Faber and Faber (2010)
- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley,1931, Penguin Books (1955)
- Men in the Sun and other Palestinian stories, Ghassan Kanafani, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc. (1999)
- The Arabs: a history, Eugene Rogan 2012, Penguin Books (2012)
- Against all odds? The political potential of Beirut’s art scene, Linda Simon & Katrin Pakizer, 2013, Heinrich-Boell-Foundation Middle East http://delfinafoundation.com/about/mission/ (2013)
