ART WELLNESS EXCHANGE 

®

Hand Made Dreams® partnered with the Harn Museum of Art-University of Florida on Saturday, July 23, 2022 for the Wellness and Creativity Workshop to bring the Art Wellness Exchange® to the UF community!  As students continue to embark on their academic journey, emotional intelligence is vital to developing character, effective communication, and conflict resolution skills.  The Les Femmes du Maroc: Harem Women Writing by Lalla Essaydi provided the perfect platform for students to engage, reflect, and share with complete bravery!   

The Art Wellness Exchange® is an introspective experience, leveraging art to build mental health awareness, generate conversation, and strengthen community connections.  The Art Wellness Exchange® provides an alternative for participants to gain mental health awareness within an everyday space, aimed to reduce stigma and encourage the continuation of their mental health journey. The Art Wellness Exchange® can be curated for multiple audiences from students, faculty, staff, and healthcare workers.  Investment in our community is not merely transactional and it is vital to focus on system wide enhancements rather than relying solely on individual intervention.  

We are now prepared to offer the Art Wellness Exchange® through our audio platform and have created a sample draft for demonstration purposes only. For additional information, please email Ashley@handmadedreams.org. 

Symbolic Interactionism

The Art Wellness Exchange® is based on Herbert Blumer's Symbolic Interactionism (Blumer 1969, Symbolic Interactionism Perspective and Method, University of California Press), which is based on 3 principles. 

People act toward things, including each other, based on the meanings they have for them.
 

These meanings are derived through social interaction with others.
 

These meanings are managed and transformed through an interpretive process that people use to make sense of and handle the objects that constitute their social worlds