In 2012, The Art Therapy Research Institute began hosting an annual Research Symposium, which has grown over the years to become a centerpiece and signature event. Our symposiums now include featured guests, faculty panels, alumni presentations and student posters as well as notable collaborations.
Current faculty, alumni and community partners discussed their grant-funded projects which integrate art-based research and ethnography as powerful tools for community empowerment and transformation. Through exploration of cultural narratives, individual identities, and collective experiences, presenters shared how art therapy and ethnography support understanding of community resilience and collective healing.
Presenters
- Joyce Yip Green, PhD, LMFT, ATR-BC & Artist Helen H. Kim — (re)Location: Lao/Korean Acculturation Project
- Ana Ruth Castillo, MA, ATR — Mobile Healing Art Studio
- Nic Rademacher, MA, ATR — We are not your Cruxes
- Ana Laura Treviño, PhD — Las voces de los niños en la pandemia
An international panel discussion from three art therapy educators from art therapy programs in India, Mexico, and Israel who explored the socio-political realities that can inform art therapy research, professional development, and community practice in a globalized world.
Presenters
- Smita Deshpande, Assistant Professor, MIT School of Fine Arts & Applied Arts, MIT Art, Design and Technology University, Pune, India
- Einat Metzl, Professor and Chair, Art Therapy Graduate Program, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
- Nic Rademacher, MA, ATR — We are not your Cruxes
- Ana Laura Treviño, Lic. Psicologia, Founder and Director, Instituto Mexicano de Psicoterapia de Arte, Mexico City, Mexico
In 2022, the West Coast Creative Arts Therapy Alliance, a collaborative effort between the LMU Marital and Family/Art Therapy Department, the Center for Community Engagement and Art Therapy Program at Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling, Antioch University Seattle, and the Graduate Art Therapy Psychology Department at Dominican University of California presented this virtual symposium featuring guest speakers, faculty, and student presentations.
LMU MFT Speakers
- Amber Bliss, LMFT
- Einat Metzl, PhD, LMFT, ATR-BC
- Nic Rademacher, MA, ATR — We are not your Cruxes
- Maru Serricchio-Joiner, PhD, LMFT, ATR-BC
By offering the Symposium as a mechanism of research, we were able to explore what was learned during the COVID-19 era of 2020 through the aspects of silence, solitude, and solidarity. That examination allowed for participants to reflect on culturally responsive research in art therapy. Centered around remote/virtual research related ways of knowing with the focus on advocacy, public awareness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary partnership.
Speakers
- Gretchen M. Miller, MA, ATR-BC, ACTP
- Jordan S. Potash, PhD, ATR-BC, REAT, LCPAT
- Lindsey Vance, MA
In 2020, the Research Symposium, a collaboration between LMU and Cedars Sinai Medical Center, was a live virtual art exhibit featuring presentations by artists, art therapists, art historians, physicians, and cancer survivors. The exhibition (Hands to HeArt) can be viewed at LMU's Digital Commons.
- Girija Kaimal, Ed.D., ATR-BC (2019)
- Heather Tarleton, Ph.D and Suzanne Hudson, Ph.D. (2018)
- Bryant Keith Alexander, Ph.D., Dean of LMU CFA (2017)
- Savneet Talwar, Ph.D., ATR-BC (2016)
- Linda Gantt, Ph.D. (2015)
- Nancy Gerber Ph.D., ATR-BC (2014)
- Linda Chapman M.A. ATR-BC (2013)
- Donna Metz Ph.D. (2012)