The Mercyhurst Art Therapy Club meets on Wednesday nights, at 8:30 p.m. in Zurn 121. Each week a new project is explained by one of the five board members at the beginning of each meeting. Together everyone participates in different kinds of activities related to the field of art.

The projects that they tend to focus on are usually based around wellness to help college students with maintaining their stress levels. The club is intended to be used as a safe place for artistic freedom. It allows many talented individuals to create an artistic vision and provide a release of any emotional tensions and frustrations through their artistry.

A few of the projects the club has done previously this year are “worry boxes” where students brought in different types of boxes, jars, or containers to paint and decorate. Another previous event the club held was making art out of shaving cream.

The Art Therapy Club also collaborates with a multitude of local and campus organizations on larger projects. They recently hosted a “Ceramics Night” event

with MAC/SAC.

One of the most recent partnerships the Art Therapy Club hosted was an event called “Be a Part of the Big Picture” with Project S.N.A.P.

Project S.N.A.P is a nonprofit organization where artists can submit their artwork to celebrate and honor the caregivers at the AHN Saint Vincent Hospital in Erie. Saint Vincent was Erie’s first hospital and was founded in 1875.

Project S.N.A.P is a brilliant organization that brings people of all ages and backgrounds together to use their artistic self-expression and storytelling skills to create a positive impact in their communities. It is a platform that empowers artists to communicate issues and passions that are valuable to them.

The Organization’s four values are to share, nurture, act and preserve. They are really trying to encourage every individual to have a unique voice and collaborate with different perspectives and ideas.

Their slogan is, “Every voice matters and every person counts.”

The “Be a Part of the Bigger Picture” is a really unique project where they work together to help collect 10,000 artworks from all over the Erie community and create a huge mural of all the individual pieces in gratitude to all the healthcare workers.

The Art Therapy Club held a session on campus where students dedicated their time to creating one or two individual works for this project. This gave students the opportunity to have creative freedom and express their voice through their artwork to be included in the final mural.

Olivia Andazola, one of the Art Therapy Club presidents, mentioned that the Art Therapy Club was also looking forward to participating at the Mocktail Night Event with their drink being “Starry Night.”

The Art Therapy Club is super welcoming and open to all majors with any level of artistic abilities. So, if you are somebody looking for a way to relieve some stress and express your creativity, come join the Art Therapy Club on Wednesday nights!