Art and Social Change- A Traveling Postcards Workshop



A Traveling Postcard
A Traveling Postcard
A Traveling Postcards Workshop
A Traveling Postcards Workshop
A Traveling Postcards workshop at Women for Afghan Women
A Traveling Postcards workshop at Women for Afghan Women
A Traveling Postcard
A Traveling Postcard
A Traveling Postcard
A Traveling Postcard
A Traveling Postcard
A Traveling Postcard
A Traveling Postcard
A Traveling Postcard

Art and Social Change- A Traveling Postcards Workshop





“ Art does not profess to rid the world of suffering and wounds. It does something with them realizing that the soul is truly at a loss when afflictions cannot be put to use.” Shaun McNiff





As a healing artist I have focused on using the creative process as a tool for personal growth and community awareness. I believe that by encouraging self-expression and global connections we can learn from our commonalities and create opportunities for everyone to become agents of change in their own community. I know that our innate wisdom holds great power and our personal expression of that wisdom can cross borders and reach far beyond ourselves to grow and affect change for generations to come.



In my effort towards nurturing and sharing our collective voices and for our right to be fully expressed, I created first, the Traveling Postcards workshop and then I created the Women’s Wisdom Initiative.



TheWomen’s Wisdom Initiative is a Bay Area nonprofit whose mission is to empower women through the healing arts and to bring awareness to humanitarian inequities facing women worldwide. By tapping into women’s traditional methods of community building and creative self expression, we seek to empower survivors to heal from their experience, speak their truth, and ultimately to be inspired to take action to end gender based oppression in their lives and communities. Our signature healing arts workshop is Traveling Postcards.



After leading hundreds of Traveling Postcards workshops in communities all over the world, I have seen the enormous power of creativity to heal and transform lives. This article is about the benefits of a Traveling Postcards workshop and I hope it will both inspire and encourage others to use art for social change.





Traveling Postcards is deceptively simple and it is this simplicity that opens doors worldwide.



Making art that is the size of a 4x6 postcard appears as an easy, non threatening activity that everyone can enjoy and it is, but a Traveling Postcard contains the most powerful tool we have to combat social injustice; our heart’s wisdom.



Designed after the ‘old fashioned sewing circle’ where women gathered in creative circles to make something with their hands to give away to a local community member in need, I created a workshop for women to share their voices of wisdom, compassion and solidarity with a global community of women. My intention was to provide a creative and safe opportunity that would access our hearts and gather the wisdom that lies there.



Working within communities of women, advocating for women’s rights and the right to be free of violence and empowering women to be leaders has long been a personal goal and a driving force for me. After graduating from JFK University’s Master in Transformative Art and the Leadership for Sustainable Change programs, I saw a unique opportunity to merge my love of art, my degree in Psychology and my innate need to make a difference in the world.





I have witnessed that traditionally women pass on their most important wisdom from mother to daughter and between close friends. I saw the need to share this wisdom beyond the confines of immediate family and to break down the social barriers of generations of women being told that their voices didn’t matter and that their intuitive knowledge was unimportant.





Traveling Postcards are handmade art the size of a postcard, used as a reminder of self worth and connection. Each postcard contains images, symbols and words that express compassion, love and hope. They are hand delivered around the world (never mailed) bringing awareness and voice to women and girls whose lives have suffered from isolation, violence or repression.





We ask women to share their resiliency in the face of oppression as a gift for another women they will never meet but who needs this wisdom. Every woman who receives a card is invited to make one. Everyone is empowered by the experience. Thus far Traveling Postcards has collected over 3000 handmade cards carrying voices to and from the Congo, Uganda, Costa Rica, Niger,Peru, Haiti, United States,Afghanistan and more. Traveling Postcards travel and are distributed via workshops and through our Traveling Heart Bag program. Every card is unique and in all the years I have been leading workshops I have never seen two postcards that looked alike!





Traveling Postcards also creates a non-threatening opportunity for personal connection to humanitarian issues that may seem overwhelming or geographically separate from our own lives.By providing personal connection, we create the possibility for every individual to become socially active in his or her community. Men are welcome in our workshops and their voices are needed as part of the solution to the insidious nature of violence against women. We need more than ever to change the discourse that men need to be strong and silent, that gender issues only mean women and that men cannot be victims of sexual assault.





We bring our workshop to domestic violence shelters, rape crises centers, college campuses, refugee centers, military bases, community centers, homes and church basements and even once…the jungle! We work with existing aid communities to provide one more tool to combat violence and to aid in healing and transformation.





By creating a sacred space in which to hold a workshop, one that is filled with an abundance of beautiful art materials spread out amongst tables with everyone sitting together, we are creating the possibility to find the inherent beauty in all things. In our workshops, women find that they can appreciate their own unique beauty and have that beauty witnessed by their peers and by a global community of women who care.





Each woman is asked to share her voice, her innate wisdom and her resiliency when she makes a postcard; her expression will not only serve as a gift for another survivor, but she will share her voice with a global community of women worldwide. She will be seen and valued.





Allowing each workshop participant to experience choice and autonomy increases her sense of self. Each time she has the option to choose a shape or color and decide where to place it on her card, she is empowered.





Art making can give us a new language in which to express ourselves. The creative process breaks through old patterns of behavior and can create new ones. She may think that she is “not an artist” or can’t do it because she is ‘not enough’, but she finds that she can. She discovers pride in her creation and in herself.





Trauma from violence shatters your sense of self and creates a need for personal exploration and expression. So many participants have not had an opportunity to use scissors, paints, sewing materials, markers, etc. since they were in third grade! We provide the opportunity to create with their hands and healing comes from intuitively designing a new map from what begins as a blank postcard and turns into a beautiful portrait of one’s best self.





I have worked with women who were living in transitional housing in several different communities both in the Bay Area and throughout the United States. We traveled over 8000 miles in 2013 on a trip we called Shelter to Sheltervisiting women’s safe houses and shelters across rural America. We have worked with refugees and immigrants within the US bringing voices of wisdom from women who have suffered the trauma of both violence and displacement. I traveled to New York to facilitate a workshop within the Afghan population living in Queens. We made cards for women living in Afghan shelters and for women living in local shelters in California. I saw over and over again how resilient they are and how willing they were to share their pain and joy on their cards. They told me that no one had ever brought them such an abundance of art materials before. We talked about their children, their dreams and their suffering, and the suffering of women around the world, but mostly we were silent and engaged in a quiet process of choosing colors, shapes and textures that tell our stories. Afterwards, one woman told me that she had not felt anything for so long and that today she felt happy.





A still, small voice can say the most revolutionary words” voice of participant.





The group process creates a witnessing and validation of each participant’s experience. She discovers she is not alone and has the ability to affect positive change for herself and for others. Through our workshops, she also has a global connection to women who care for one another. She is no longer isolated.





Slowing down and making something with our hands connects us to our hearts. Letting go of daily distractions helps anyone to open up to the creative process and the process of personal reflection. Even when resistance to the process is experienced, the workshop is simple enough to have every woman succeed. Strength comes from having a conversation or dialoging with the Traveling Postcard. She can now ‘see’ her beauty and resilience. Many participants find relief in finding their truest selves this way: a self that can hold pain with both power and potential.





Finally, sending her postcard into the world acknowledges her strength and gives her courage to speak. She sees that her voice is a powerful gift not only for another survivor, but also for a global community that will benefit from hearing voices of solidarity and resilience in the face of violence. Everyone is excited to give their cards away and often somewhat reluctant to let go of their beautiful creation. Yet they see this as an act of power and service. In the workshop we ask them to write: “ If you could hear what the woman who received your postcard was thinking, what would she say? “ One woman responded, “This card represents what I have to do for myself, my family, my future. Everything is going to be okay. There is hope”. So many women speak of wanting to feel peaceful, safe, and free. Everyone speaks of love.





Creativity is a bridge to our authentic wisdom and our ability to heal ourselves. It is available to everyone. It is a universal language that cannot be restricted due to ethnicity, education, or economics. Art provides a much needed opportunity to see that we are not limited by our immediate circumstances and that by accessing and seeing our unique wisdom, we can choose to be fully expressed in our own communities and create a better life for ourselves and for those around us. I see art as a healing tool not to “fix’ someone but to engage with them clearly and without judgment as they walk in their own process. Our stories can become guidance and wisdom for one another as we are faced with new challenges. Often I see a letting go process that stops self-blame and shame and instead engages us to the present and to what is possible. Creative action allows for a mindful interaction with whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. Throughout this interaction we are finding our authentic wisdom and can begin to recognize its shape and character. Traveling Postcards does all that!





In the process of healing not everything can be spoken or explained. The process of art allows for feelings and thoughts that are stuck in a special or lost place to be expressed in another way or medium that so often is not accessed in regular therapeutic options. The postcard allowed me to share my feelings and thoughts with another person, even without knowing who that person is, in a way that was intimate-without feeling exposed. After the workshop I felt freer, like I had done something for someone that day and for myself.



Workshop Participant



If you would like more information please visit: http://womenswisdominitiative.org/





Caroline Lovell MA



Founding Director



Women’s Wisdom Initiative



http://womenswisdominitiative.org/



info@womenswisdominitiative.org





Creatively Sharing Wisdom, Leading from the Heart.



How to Get Involved



http://womenswisdominitiative.org/get-involved/


https://vimeo.com/179835894

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