A Holy Experiment: Healing Arts Ministry in Amherst County
The Alma Hunt Offering for Virginia Missions has allowed the WMU of Virginia to offer Mission Grants each year since 2020. These grants allow mission funds to support local community members and ministries that may not exist without this funding. One example of these grant recipients is the Healing Art Studio, created by Amy Hall, who shares her experience below:
As I was walking into the library in November 2021, I stopped to browse through the Angel Tree ornaments. Every child, ages 2 to 18, was asking for art supplies from colored pencils to art kits. It had me curious as to why all of these kids wanted art supplies so I copied down the Angel Tree contact info for ELCM Hope Community Center in Madison Heights, Virginia.
Later that day, I messaged the Community Center and asked them if they offered art classes since all of these children wanted art supplies. Catherine Brown, Director/Pastor of ELCM Hope Community Center, said they didn’t offer art classes but would like to and asked if I would like to volunteer. One thing led to another as I shared my vision with Catherine for a free community recovery art studio where people can come together to find Christ-centered hope, support, and healing through artistic expression. I was expecting to give this a trial run for a couple months but instead, Catherine asked me to commit for a year and we decided to run a monthly healing art studio.
We spread the word about the Healing Art Studio to local mental health organizations and support groups in Amherst County and Lynchburg. We also shared it with local churches and non-profits as well as by word of mouth and social media—not really knowing who or what to expect but open to seeing where this went.
Around the same time, I saw the WMUV ad for the Alma Hunt grant. I talked with my pastor at Convergence about applying for this grant, unsure if something like this would be considered as my membership with Convergence is rather unconventional. I was introduced to Convergence, an arts-and-faith-oriented church in Alexandria, VA, when they moved online at the start of the pandemic bridging the three-hour distance between Amherst County and NOVA. Convergence is known in BGAV life for pioneering new and creative ideas to expand the Kingdom. We don’t have anything like Convergence at all in rural Central Virginia. And suddenly, I found myself surrounded by a church that not only “gets it”, but who also supports one another in their creative callings and who launches each other out as the Spirit leads. They poured into me during COVID, affirmed what all God was doing in Central Virginia, and further trained and equipped me to step into creative ministry outside of the church walls.
In December 2021, I started preparing an outline for a year-long healing art studio which included art prompts, art journaling homework, and art supply lists as I wanted to write an art missions curriculum to help churches engage creatively with their community. Once the outline was in place, I created an Amazon wish list that included all the supplies we would need for an entire year’s studio, plus a few extra wants.
The Healing Art Studio became a merging of several different communities as I reached out for help and support in starting the studio. The youth archery community that I co-lead purchased many supplies off the Amazon Wish List and sent each package separately so I would receive a blessing every few days for a couple of weeks. Convergence friends sent supplies that only other artists would know the true value of even down to a dream wish list item of specific stencils. My Convergence ordination mentor also enlisted the help of her friends and supplies started coming in from across America including the 25 art journals that I was praying for and needed for the opening art studio. My local in-person church was faithful in backing me with prayer support throughout this process. God led a young man from my church who loves art and archery and who lives in Amherst County and wanted to learn what art ministry is about to assist me with the studio (that is when you know it’s God)!
The Healing Art Studio opened on Saturday, January 8, 2022. I went in with my newly created and overly detailed outline and curriculum only to be faced with a completely different group of participants than I imagined as we had 6 youths and 6 adults. I assumed that since this was recovery art, it would just be adults and never factored in youth coming to the studio. But I stuck to the plan and we started out with the basics of art journaling and how to color map your emotions. It stirred deep places with the adults but was lacking for the teens. The next month, the same group of people attended plus a few extras and I continued with the curriculum mindset, determined to make it work. However, it was missing the mark. And frankly, even I was bored with what I was presenting but scared to leave behind the curriculum and “wing it” with the Holy Spirit. As I watched the teens collaging in their art journals, I knew I had to let go of the curriculum and detailed outlines. God was calling me to the artists in front of me who were choosing to attend the art studio and hoping for an authentic and meaningful art experience—something Spirit-led that cannot be defined by a curriculum.
As I learned to let go and follow the Spirit and get to know the studio participants by listening to what they were saying through their words, art, and feedback, my vision for the Healing Art Studio began change. The studio also became messier and messier. We moved more into experimentation, discovery and play rather than a structured, contained art prompt. We had a day where we used only fingers to paint with no paintbrushes on site. We made slime (LOTS of slime) with glitter and add-ins. We learned the basics of monoprinting through the gelli art process. We learned how to paint pour on a budget and later did a Christmas studio where we paint poured Christmas gifts. We made truth boxes complete with handmade envelopes. And creating masks that revealed our identity proved to be a powerful (and colorful) experience.
A sense of community grew around the table as we created together, laughed over our attempts at art, and then oohed and ahhed over how each project came together in the end. We shared conversations about mundane things to very traumatic things. We encouraged each other as much as we challenged each other. Heaviness was exchanged for hope. Stress was exchanged for creative play. Perfection was traded in for imperfection. And an expectation of trying without fear, shame, or judgment became the norm. Growth happened in many ways, including with one youth who needed step-by-step instructions with a lot of assistance for the first few months but then attempted every art prompt on her own without assistance during the last few months of the art studio as her confidence with art soared.
A couple of months into the Healing Art Studio, I was shocked to find out that we were awarded an Alma Hunt grant for the Healing Art Studio. With most of our Amazon wish list already covered at that point, we took this money to God and asked Him to show us how to best use it. God was already beginning to expand facets of the Healing Art Studio so we started purchasing non-consumable art supplies—like gelli plates and rubber rollers--that can be used for the Studio and on the road with local churches, women’s retreats, WMU groups, senior adult groups, kids’ camps, and recovery/support groups. We expanded on the Back to School Supply Event by setting up an art tent so kids could paint their own pencil bags. The mamas designed their own makeup bags while their kids played in the bounce house. The grant allowed us to purchase face paints which we learned to use as a conversation starter and spoke words of worth, value and hope over these children as we painted their little faces. Face painting was woven throughout the year in different Community Center events, at a local cancer benefit, and at a suicide awareness and prevention event.
Finally, the grant allowed us to help host the Community Center’s first Women’s Conference in September called “Spillin’ the ‘T’” (tea=truth). Two Convergence artists traveled down to Amherst County to help me and Catherine lead a couple dozen women, men, and youth in art making and art processing. We spent two days unpacking Ephesians 3:16-21 through three creative sessions. Participants painted a ceramic cup and saucer which reflected our inner and outer man (and included color mapping our emotions that we learned through the Healing Art Studio) as well as created memory frames with the retreat theme, learned how to use chalk pastels to reflect on the beauty of God and His love, and then closed out the conference with a session on writing haiku as a prayerful expression of what we learned at the conference.
The Healing Art Studio ended in December 2022 with plans to continue hosting seasonal art events at the Community Center in 2023. Also, the Healing Art Studio birthed a Leadership Art Circle in September 2022. This Leadership Art Circle provides creative rest and support for women ministers, church staff and community leaders as 6-10 women meet monthly at my house to use collage, watercolors and other art forms to work through an art prompt centered around our leadership and calling. It wouldn’t be a Leadership Art Circle without sisterhood, shared prayers over each other, art fun and cheese dip! Because of the Leadership Art Circle, each of us is growing confidence in our leadership as we realize we aren’t lone pioneers. We are challenging each other to take bigger risks in faith and our prayers are becoming bolder as we see what God is doing in each other’s lives and ministries through this circle of understanding and support. The Alma Hunt grant lives on through the art supplies gathered through the Healing Art Studio as they are being poured into opportunities for rest and refreshment for leaders so they can continue pouring into their ministry contexts and communities.
Thank you for giving to the Alma Hunt offering, and for selecting the Healing Art Studio for the 2022 grant. Because of the support from Convergence, my archery community, and the Alma Hunt grant, the Healing Art Studio experienced numerous blessings. We saw God working to encourage and strengthen the staff and vision of the Community Center. New friendships and community partnerships were formed through the Healing Art Studio as we learned through creative play and made new discoveries about art, ourselves, God, and our community. The Healing Art Studio was a catalyst of hope as we experienced unique ways to present the hope and transforming healing power of Christ in Amherst County.
Rev. Amy Hall,
Shalom Creatives