ArtTalk: The Art of Healing
On Thursday, May 19 at 7:00 pm join The Umbrella Community for The Art of Healing featuring Tracie Dunn from the Concord River Institute, Emily Johnson from Pathways, and artist and educator Merill Comeau. These three panelists each work with young adults, using art as a form of connection and communcation. Hear about what they've learned in their years using art to heal.
The ArtTalk series brings presentations about visual art to The Umbrella that spark insightful conversations and rich contemplation. Tickets to all of The Umbrella's ArtTalks are $10 for the general public and $7 for resident artists.
About the panelists:
Martha O'Connell manages art education and engagement initiatives for youth involved in Massachusetts’ Department of Youth Services, the state’s juvenile justice agency at Commonwealth Corporation, a quasi-state agency dedicated to workforce development for youth and adults. Martha has been working for the past 3 years alongside DYS Education Management to expand and deepen partnerships with community arts organizations to provide programming in performance, visual, spoken-word, and music-based arts in DYS’s secure residential treatment programs and transitional community programs. Prior to her work with CommCorp, Martha was a mentoring artist in DYS detention facilities and coordinated a local youth jobs program with Southwest Boston CDC, in Hyde Park. She received a BFA from Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning in 2009 where she focused on mural art projects with social service agencies, urban planning, and sculptural drawing.
Tracie Dunn has taught studio arts at the high school level in Massachusetts' public schools since 2001. Her instructional practices encourage positive interpersonal experiences and substantial learning opportunities through the process of making art. She has also designed arts opportunities for under-served children and families living in New York City, taught in Virginia's Summer Residential Governor's School, and in 2012, helped to launch "Rivers and Revolutions" at Concord-Carlisle High School. In addition to teaching, Tracie recently opened a studio space at the Bradford Mills' ArtScape in West Concord. Tracie holds a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and an M.A. from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
Emily Johnson is a special education tutor in the Pathways Program, a program providing specialized academic and vocational services at Concord-Carlisle High School. She is passionate about creating inclusionary and immersive experiences for students of all abilities. Emily has facilitated collaborative projects between Rivers and Revolutions and the Pathways Program, allowing for her students to participate in peer-driven and community-based educational experiences. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Social Work from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and a Master of Education in Moderate Disabilities from American International College.
Merill Comeau is a mixed media artist creating large, wall-hung collages examining narratives of repair, regeneration, and bloom. As a teaching artist for the Department of Youth Services, Comeau’s practice involves making art with youth at risk. The impact of her students’ families of origin, her experiences of family, and observations of the wider human family provide her with rich inspiration. An enthusiastic recycler, Comeau produces her work primarily from discarded materials reflecting her concerns for the environment and issues of sustainability. She deconstructs, reconstructs, and alters clothing and linens disrupting, reordering, and rebuilding stories exploring common human concerns. Comeau has a background in interior and architectural design and a degree in social theory. Her background in interiors influenced her choice of working with textiles and her background in social theory informs her work’s conceptual base.
Merill Comeau exhibits widely including solo shows at North Hill Art Gallery in Needham, McInitch Gallery of Southern New Hampshire University, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, ArtSpace Maynard, The Center for the Arts in Natick, and Concord Art Association. Comeau will be featured in the upcoming three-volume series Exploring Fiber Art by Ashley E. Rooney to be published by Schiffer Publishing. In the Spring 2016, Comeau was one of three artists included in Fiber Art Now’s article Threads of Social Justice, an exploration of artists that use their voices to raise awareness. New England Home profiled Comeau in their May/June 2014 issue, World Of Threads published an extensive interview with her in Fall 2013, Fiber Art Now profiled her in both the Spring 2016 and Summer 2012 editions, and FiberArts Magazine Summer 2011 showcased her as an emerging artist. Comeau will be in residence at Acadia National Park in Maine in the fall of 2016. She is a Hambidge Center for Art and Science Fellow and completed residencies at the Weir Farm Art Center in Connecticut and Vermont Studio Center.
