Workshops Presented in August by the Grand Marais Art Colony and Care Partners of Cook County
Are you a caregiver or family member of someone experiencing memory loss? Are you a practitioner who works with patients with dementia? Thanks to a grant from the North Shore Health Care Foundation, the Grand Marais Art Colony and Care Partners of Cook County are teaming up to offer three free workshops that might be a good fit for you.
Art therapist Erin Rafferty-Bugher will lead three separate sessions August 15, 16, and 17, providing a creative process for participants to give expression to their experience and acquire resources to improve their physical, mental, and emotional health in light of memory loss. No artistic experience is required for any of these sessions and while they are free, space is limited. Participants are invited to bring significant personalized clothing, fabric, yarns, ribbons, baubles and ephemera to be customized and transformed but not required. All materials provided.
Erin received her MA in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been actively engaged in the mental health field using art therapy and creativity in healing since 1998. Her experience includes trauma focused work with children and adolescents in long-term educational / therapeutic and hospital settings as well as with adults and older adults within clinical behavioral mental health hospital settings. Erin has extensive teaching and training experience. Learn more about Erin at brainspark.art.
Erin will be at the Thursday, August 15th Memory Cafe at the HUB to lead an activity called Weaving Memories Together. Memory Cafe is an established and ongoing Care Partners program, a casual once-a-month gathering for people experiencing dementia and the family and friends who care for them. Participants are invited to engage using hands-on artistic processes to create a unique project that will serve as a symbolic memento honoring the shared experience. Register for the August 15 Memory Cafe.
On Friday, August 16 family caregivers are invited to attend HeArt of the Caregiver at Studio 21 from 12 – 2 pm. This session allows time for people who are caring for family or friends to honor their role by participating in an art activity using various materials to create their own fabric resiliency heart. Lunch is included with this session and again, it is free but space is limited. Register for the August 16 Family Caregiver session.
The third session that Erin will teach is for practitioners on the topic of how to avoid burnout. This session is scheduled for Saturday, August 17 from 9 am – 12 pm at Studio 21. Practitioners working in healthcare and caregiving spaces are invited to explore personal resilience and strength. This includes those working in medical fields such as doctors, psychiatrists, nurses, therapists, physical and occupational therapists, chaplains, social workers and those working in areas of behavioral health. Throughout the workshop Erin will employ creative and artistic engagement, which is a trauma-informed approach used to mitigate the common impact of burnout and secondary trauma commonly experienced within the field. Refreshments will be provided. Register for the August 17 Professional Caregiver session.
Care Partners of Cook County mission is to support community members on the journey of aging and end-of-life, and we envision a community that is fully supported to navigate that journey together.
The Grand Marais Art Colony fosters the exploratory growth and experimental power of contemporary artists.