Learning by Doing & Pouring

The basement of the Juvenile Justice Center served as an art studio for University of Toledo students enrolled in the AED 4300 Media and Methods in Therapeutic Art course, on Monday, April 2.

Instructor Renée Obrock had her students convene at the Juvenile Court, meeting up with court-involved youth and Probation staff Tim Bauerschmidt, Bill Weis, Lisa Demko, Kristen McClain, Angie Morgan, Elizabeth Sepeda, Kineka Wallace, and Ed Cox, and East Toledo Family Center staff, Makayla King, Onna Moore, and two interns.

The group activity involved a combination paint and resin pour on top of wood plaques. Over 60 wood plaques were prepared for the two different art sessions. The work space was broken up into stations for each of the precise steps involved: from mixing the paint, combining the components for the resin, to selecting paint colors and creating.

The UT students, whose majors ranged from Psychology to Disability Studies to Education to Women & Gender Studies worked alongside youth and staff. One of the youth’s family members assisted in organizing the plaques in neat rows to dry.

Ms. Obrock, who has a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts and a Masters of Art Education, said class, “Media and Methods in Therapeutic Art,” hadn’t met the minimum number of registrants in a while, so she created a flier to drum up participation. The flier, circulated beyond the Art Education department to the Psychology department, helped promote the class beyond the usual majors. In short order the class filled, resulting in an opportunity for expanding the teaching of therapeutic art to non-art majors. She first became aware of the Juvenile Court’s Positive Youth Justice focus in probation through Joe Szafarowicz.

While waiting, the UT students shared the stories of the paths that brought them to this particular class and inspired their career choice. One of the students shared that while on a mission trip to Central America a language barrier was easily hurdled by “communicating through doing,”