Community Expressive Arts Project: CEAP

The Community Expressive Arts Project (CEAP) is a student-run program which strives to bring expressive arts techniques to disadvantaged children. CEAP's expressive arts work provides a therapeutic environment in which individuals and communities can explore and express the emotional content of their lives. Student facilitators work to create a safe space with a strong framework where children can be guided in developing play and art-making as resources.

What CEAP Does:
Expressive arts education
CEAP members participate in experienced-based training sessions with qualified expressive arts practitioners. We practice and discuss expressive arts techniques, exploring our own play and art-making processes in order to develop sensitivity in facilitating them with others. Study groups are also held so students can learn the theoretical foundations of expressive arts. 

Weekly Field Work
CEAP at the Astor Home in Rhinebeck (a residential facility for children coping with emotional trauma): CEAP members meet weekly with small groups of children, building consistency and trust through expressive arts-based activities and interactions. We work to build a safe environment for sharing experiences and developing tools that facilitate communication, expression, healing, and magic.

CEAP at the Center for Spectrum Services (a school for children with autism): The goal of participating in this community is to supplement the school's limited art resources to provide the children with alternative forms of expression and communication. Weekly workshops with students at the Children's Annex utilize flexible structures for expression while focusing on guided play, developmental support, and mediated group interaction.

CEAP at Red Hook Residential (low-security juvenile detention center for boys aged 11 to 18): CEAP members work with all the young men to help them negotiate their placement at the center and their eventual release. 

CEAP at Ferncliff Nursing Home. CEAP members visit the residents and offer companionship through the arts.

Trips
To date, CEAP members have gone to:
Burma: where we provided supplies and facilitated workshops at orphanages and drop-in centers over the course of three yearly visits
New Orleans: where we facilitated workshops with the students at James Singleton Charter School. We visited classrooms and ran an afterschool program over the course of three visits. Partnered with the New Orleans Project to run workshops at Wilson Elementary.
Ghana: where a CEAP member facilitated after school arts-based workshops for children.
Colombia: where we facilitated daily workshops in a temporary home for children of violent, negligent, and transitioning circumstances. We also provided art supplies and activities to a community center located in a severely under resourced community.
India: where a CEAP member facilitated bi-weekly workshops with young women who have been rescued from the flesh trade in Calcutta and Nepal.
Sri Lanka: a CEAP member was awarded a $10,000 grant to create a sustainable expressive arts community in Colombo. 

Graduate study opportunity for CEAP members at the European Graduate School:
Bard College and the European Graduate School (EGS) in Saas Fee, Switzerland have a cooperative relationship which allows any CEAP student who fulfills EGS requirements, to begin their masters studies following their time in CEAP as undergraduates. There are currently four students applying for admission to EGS' unique summer intensive study program for summer 2009.

The Arts, Health and Society division of EGS offers certificate programs (MAPS and CAGS) and Masters and Doctoral degrees in Expressive Arts Therapy and Expressive Arts Coaching and Consulting, Education, and Social Change.

Teaching takes place in the town of Saas Fee in the Swiss Alps (state of Valais) in two sessions each summer from June to August. Students and faculty from all over the world meet to participate in intensive training seminars in expressive arts. 

Visit the EGS website at www.egsuniversity.ch/expressive-arts-egs-home/

If you have questions or comments, or would like to support the CEAP program with the donation of funds or art supplies, please contact us!

Current Contact(s):
Adrienne Vitullo (09/01/11 - 08/31/14)
Sarah Lettiere (09/01/12 - 08/31/13)

Past Contact(s):
Abigail Lazarowski (09/01/09 - 08/31/12)
Malka Roth (09/01/10 - 08/31/11)
Emily Wolff (09/03/07 - 08/31/10)
Rebeka Radna (09/01/06 - 08/31/09)
Anna Putnam (09/01/06 - 08/31/09)
Leah Schrader (09/01/05 - 08/31/07)
Emily Diaz (09/01/06 - 08/31/07)
Megan Kerins (11/01/04 - 08/31/06)
Kaythee Hlaing (09/01/03 - 08/31/06)
Jeremiah Spofford-Hulsebos (09/01/05 - 08/31/06)
Thomas Arndt (02/01/05 - 08/31/06)
Jivan Lee (11/01/04 - 08/31/06)

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