Making art with girls from Israel and Palestine

    I am preparing in full force for this year's camp at Creativity for Peace, where 16-18 girls are brought to Santa Fe, New Mexico from Israel and Palestine. They meet girls from "the other side" for the first time and work intensively for three weeks to come to an understanding of each other's experience, resolve internal and external conflicts, and build peace together. It is a challenging, transformative, and inspiring experience to witness and support, and I am honored as always to be a part of it. I'd like to write a little bit about the art aspect of this process.
    The art offered the campers serves several purposes. It sometimes challenges the girls to continue their conflict resolution work in a nonverbal way either individually or within a group. It sometimes offers respite from the intense group process, giving the campers time to process their own thoughts and feelings or to just have fun. It sometimes celebrates the campers and their hard work through focusing on strengths and new relationships. We offer a variety of media and activities, ranging from mask making to painting to land art.

    There are always some young women who feel it is easier or safer to express themselves in a creative fashion. And there are also some campers who find it easier to verbalize their experiences after painting or sculpting them. Art and other imaginative processes offer alternative routes into and out of the vast inner worlds of the human. When we are trying to understand deep and complex parts of ourselves, it can be easier to access those parts through a less structured form of perception and expression than words. I especially find this to be the case for people whose first language is not English and who are asked to express themselves in this language.

   It is always incredible to facilitate an art process for this large group of teenage girls - a group that changes every year. As a group they have a wide array experiences in terms of exposure to art, ease with art making, and artistic skill set. Some of the young women come to camp with a love of art making. Others discover this love while they're here. Others may leave with a level of interest in art that is similar to what they came with. The art program is often powerful, but not for everyone. I am sometimes occupied by trying to eek effort and interest out of some of the campers, but more often than not I am moving around constantly in the group supporting girls with technical, conceptual, or emotional questions as they create. 

   The art program works in tandem with the dialogue part of the camp, which is the group process that occurs most mornings of the camp for at least three hours. Usually if there is a major challenge in engaging the girls during art, it's because our planned art activity is not in line with their emotional state and group process at the time. So this year I plan to be prepared for greater flexibility with the art activities, having a few different art projects ready to go at all times in case it seems best to change plan A to plan B or C. 

   This work is so valuable to me, and I really enjoy working for an organization that evolves each year to offer the best we can for these hard-working girls.