Imagine! Partners with Naropa University

Imagine! has a longstanding relationship with Naropa University and their Community Art Studio (NCAS), a space for Imagine! participants to create various forms of art with Naropa art therapy students. Once a week, Imagine!’s adult day program ventures to Naropa’s Nalanda campus in East Boulder to explore the world of visual and contextual art. Clay work, knitting, mixed media, 3-D sculpture work, and group canvas paintings are just a few ways this group gets their hands dirty and grow as artists.

 First year art therapy students at Naropa use the NCAS to complete a fifty-hour practicum and gain experience working with various groups from the local community. Imagine! is one of four community partners that come in weekly and engage with the art therapy students. “This is not an art class run by a teacher, rather a group run by all participants together,” said Kate Schettler, Lead Mentor of the NCAS. “Everyone has input regarding the direction of their work, everyone takes responsibility for the care of the studio space, and everyone is viewed as an integral member.”

“The general goal of Imagine! art classes is to encourage self-expression in a safe and accepting
environment,” said Imagine! Art Instructor. “One participant in particular has come a long way with feeling more comfortable during participation and showing others what he makes at the studio.

Naropa students offer knowledge, skill, and expertise with art processes, techniques, tools, and materials to the Imagine! participants. “And the group participants offer the same to the student mentors,” said Schettler.

Naropa wanted to practice a form of communal inclusion based on humanistic values such as cultivating a sense of unity within a diverse society. They also were aiming to provide equal access to those who would likely not be able to afford entrance into a fully stocked art studio, and have consistently attempted to work from this inclusive point of view.

The space is welcoming and creative. The Naropa students have the entire semester or year to build rapport with the Imagine! participants, creating a friendly environment with endless possibilities of creative expression.

 We thank Naropa University for including Imagine! in their mission of engaging the community in mindful art creation and social gathering!

**Information and perspective taken from: Unity in Diversity: Community Pluralism in the Art Studio and the Classroom: Written by Michael Franklin, Merryl E Rothaus, and Kendra Schpok.