As a survivor of domestic violence, *Mary chose to attend cultural art therapy sessions at the National Gallery in Dublin. The experience she described felt like an internal warm embrace. During the sessions, dialogues, tears, and laughter were shared. Having someone understand and acknowledge her shared trauma was a novel experience for Mary.
Despite maintaining anonymity to safeguard her children’s identity, Mary talks candidly about her experience. Often, perceptions of domestic violence victims lean toward financially dependent women. But, in her case, she outearned her ex-husband by three times. She expressed her shame at how gradually such situations materialise, and the normalization of such occurrences, despite being an educated, independent individual. Her confidence and self-worth eroded in her domestic space.
Joining Mary in the programme were six other women, all of whom had also experienced domestic violence. They delved into art over ten weekly two-hour sessions, guided by an art therapist. During this time, they analysed paintings in a slow and detailed manner, created their own artistic perspectives, and pondered over the experience.
Art therapist Andrea Plunkett orchestrated these sessions. She stated how acknowledging an artwork and relating to it might provoke profound thoughts and feelings. She found the process of providing a secure space, creating art together, and sharing their creations profoundly enchanting.
Mary found it hard to relax due to her abusive past, even during the night. However, these sessions carved out a non-judgmental and safe space for her. Plunkett clarified that cultural art therapy, unlike regular art therapy, is conducted in cultural environments and uses art as a projection medium, revealing subconscious thoughts as everyone perceives art differently.
Mary found being at the National Gallery a familiar comfort but it was a novelty for the rest of the female group, none of whom had visited the institution before. Saoirse Domestic Violence Services’ director of services Nadine O’Brien, despite her Master’s degree and professional accomplishments, admits that participating in the project was her first entry into the gallery.
O’Brien acknowledged there was a touch of self-reproach for not visiting the gallery before due to classist notions, but she identified this as similar to the self-deprecation and unworthiness that victims of domestic abuse often contend with. She identified a twofold significance: her own feelings about the gallery and the emotional baggage carried by victims of domestic abuse.
Viewing the artworks of renowned 16th-century Italian painter Lavinia Fontana, the first woman to attain commercial success in the field, was a deliberate choice. O’Brien felt a deep connection with Fontana, hailed as a feminist icon who managed her professional craft, family, and home successfully.
O’Brien clarifies that creating art aids in addressing and making sense of traumatic experiences, especially in the current escalated climate of domestic violence. It furnishes victims under their care with a therapeutic, educational opportunity in a safe, public environment.
O’Brien’s initial encounter with the gallery, through the works of Lavinia Fontana, impacted her work significantly. The gallery’s safe refuge that welcomed victims of abuse for healing sessions was profoundly uplifting, says Plunkett. Helping victims to process their trauma by creating art and sharing it was a rewarding and magical exchange.
Numerous women suppress their traumas, which inflict harm on their hearts, minds and spirits. But the gallery offers them a sanctuary, where they devote a few hours to focus on the work before them, liberating them from their painful ordeals.
O’Brien believes that this form of therapy can provide women who have exited a refuge and transcended the emergency aspect of domestic violence, a glimmer of hope and a route towards liberation.
The escalating physical and economic domestic abuse is worrying, according to a recent report.
Through the act of creating art, it allows these women to understand and cope with traumatic experiences that are otherwise difficult to comprehend. The increasing severity of domestic violence necessitates providing people accessing our services with a healing opportunity embedded in knowledge sharing, within a communal setting.
Saoirse extends housing solutions to women dispersed across the southwest of Dublin and West Wicklow and also proffers outreach services for families and offers court escorts.
Brina Casey, who works as a psychotherapist and educational officer at the National Gallery, acknowledges the worth of fostering open and encompassing spaces within the gallery. The gallery proposes to be a source of community comfort with an emphasis on caring for items and people alike.
This week, on Wednesday, the gallery held the screening for ‘No Words,’ a short film that focuses on the cultural art therapy project for workmates in other cultural institutions, art therapists and the general public who have a vested interest.
The persistent ambition, as highlighted by Sinead Rice, chief of education at the gallery, is to make education more accessible and defy preconceived notions that the gallery is mundane and unwelcoming. It is hoped that art therapy will draw in others.
In her role as chair of the Irish Association of Creative Art Therapists, Plunkett aims to instruct others on cultural art therapy. Her ambition is to accredit other art therapists like herself to spearhead initiatives within their local museums.
O’Brien sees merit in providing such therapy to those at the forefront of offering services to at-risk populations. It’s seen as a means to counteract the after-effects of trauma and fatigue, which often darkens their worldview and in turn might serve to aid in their self-care.
The art therapy initiative at The National Gallery, aimed at providing culture to Saoirse Domestic Violence Services, has received fiscal backing from the Bank of America. The gallery is scheduling to station a permanent in-house art therapist from the year 2025.
‘Mary’ is a fictitious name utilised for the safeguarding of the family of a lady who shared her domestic violence ordeal with us.
In case you require assistance, the Saoirse Domestic Violence Services have a free helpline available around the clock at 1800 911 221. Also, there’s Women’s Aid with a 24-hour nationwide free helpline, reached at 1800 341 900.