Living Art program promotes healing through arts and nature in Missoula

Yupa Stein, director of Living Art in Missoula, told a hospital women's health audience that the nonprofit uses arts and nature-based experiences to support people facing illness, loss and caregiving stress.

"We believe that the arts and our relationship to the natural world are essential to our wellness," Stein said. She described programs that help participants access strengths and deepen relationships to themselves and others through art-making and nature connection.

Stein introduced a monthly drop-in poetry workshop that Living Art launched in February 2004 and praised facilitators Beth Farris and Judith Johnson. Participant Sheila Weishauer read a short personal poem about recovery and creative practice and credited the workshop with giving a safe place to express pain and build strength.

Organizer Beth Shank, a facilitator of women's health at a psychiatric hospital, announced a series of upcoming health lectures tied to the community program: Deb Seidbrand, a physician assistant in cardiology at the International Heart Institute of Montana, is scheduled to speak on women's heart health in February; and Dr. Judy Bisher, a family practice physician at the Western Montana Clinic, is scheduled for a March 15, 2007 talk on weight management. Shank gave times and a venue for in-person attendance at St. Patrick Hospital's Broadway Building.

The Living Art presentation framed arts programming as an adjunct to clinical care and community support, with volunteers and monthly classes intended to reach a wide age range, from children to older adults.