Art With a Heart

Giving Seriously Ill Kids a Chance to Express Themselves

Once a month since January 2002, enthusiastic volunteers from Art With Heart have arrived at the Hutch School with art supplies in hand and set the students upon fun and creative projects to help them express their experiences with serious illness. The Hutch School serves children who are undergoing treatment for cancer through Seattle Children's Hospital, a Seattle Cancer Care Alliance parent organization, or who have a family member in treatment at SCCA.

Art With Heart workshops give the kids a chance to try different artistic media and tackle various subject matters, all in the interest of self-expression.

"We’re not just teaching artistic skills," says Steffanie Lorig, Art With Heart executive director and founder. "Our main goal is to use art as a tool for the kids to express themselves."

"Sometimes kids just can’t talk about what they’re going through," says Lorig, but they can draw, paint, sculpt or make a collage about it.

In Art With Heart’s self-portrait workshops, for instance, kids are asked to think of a mood they’ve experienced lately, pick a color that represents that mood and paint a self-portrait using shades of that color. In another activity, kids build self-portraits in wire that express feelings through poses or movements. In another, kids decorate wish boxes, putting their wishes inside. Other activities are based on the organization’s Oodles of Doodles activity book, designed to help kids through health crises.

"The kids are wonderful and very receptive," says Lorig. As the day’s projects gets underway, the kids get visibly engaged in their creations, she says, perking up and throwing themselves into the activity. "When you work side by side with these kids," she says, "you really see the difference that art can make."

The more ways children have to explore and express difficult feelings, the less likely they are to internalize these feelings and to develop emotional troubles, such as depression or nightmares, Lorig explains.

Art With Heart workshops are designed to be a positive, safe place for this important self-expression. They provide children with adult interaction, attention and encouragement, says Lorig, and they help kids focus on their strengths and aspirations.

"All of these things are very therapeutic," she says.

Visit the Art With a Heart web site to learn more about the organization’s local and nationwide programs and publications, and how you can support them by donating or volunteering.