All this month, Radio Milwaukee has celebrated the importance of arts education in our local communities. We’ve visited the Latino Arts Strings Program at UCC,Grace Weber’s Music Lab, Islands of Brilliance and many other local arts education programs. In this piece, we walk through the doors ofBloom Center for Art and Integrated Therapy in Bay View.
The skeleton of the space is like a traditional doctor’s office: a check-in window with a door separating the waiting room and the private rooms behind that door, but it doesn’t feel like an ordinary doctor’s office. It’s colorful, bright, vibrant and decorated with unique art.
Listen to the audio story below to learn more about Bloom’s community art therapy studio from Executive Director Doctor Emily Nolan.
When you walk through that door that divides the waiting room and the private rooms, the coziness and vibrancy follows you. The walls have shelves with all sorts of art materials in them. The rooms have couches, large tables and are spacious enough to fit families into them.
Bloom focuses on comfort and affordability when it comes to their art therapy services. They serve as a training center for medical students and are able to provide mental health services through art therapy at their studio.
Every Saturday, the office turns into a free community art therapy studio where individuals and families can come in to discuss what’s on their mind and explore those feelings by creating art. After creating, they are invited to reflect on the process and how it made them feel.
Bloom serves a diverse range of families, and they’re proud to offer affordable service to low-income families who typically lack access to mental health professionals. For details on services and the community art therapy studio, visit their website here.