Visual Arts

In this video, Visual Arts Instructor Chalice Mitchell, MFA, talks about their work within the Austen Riggs Center Activities Program.

Making art allows anyone to fully explore themselves. It's all okay. There are no right or wrong choices in painting or drawing. Making art in the context of Austen Riggs, it allows people to choose what they want to do. They can use the painting and drawing studio as a way to explore what's the right fit for them. What do they want to express in a way that they can't with words it can be really freeing. My name is Chalice Mitchell. I teach Visual Arts. I've been at Austen Riggs since 2021. The way I work with students is different every time. Some students are looking for a place to just explore to slash paint around on a canvas. They might want to just play, and I try to facilitate that. Other students really want to learn a specific skill. They might want more challenge. They might want some more structure. So, since I teach one-on-one, I can offer that. I think for most people the experience of coming into this space is that they left off our making in elementary school or junior high school and they wanted to continue. They've never tried this or they've never learned that. They often come in with a specific objective. It can be an overwhelming space because there are so many options but often people will come in knowing what they want to try and then they might branch out and do something else, try something else, find what they really love. Students can come to the studio right away, as soon as they arrive at Riggs. If they have time in their schedule, they can be here and start using our facilities and start learning, start painting whatever they want to do. Often people create a work of art here and it's unavoidable for there to be some type of insight while you're creating. It might be a process thing. It might be like the visual aspect. The students might bring what they've learned here into their therapy, or they might actually bring their artwork to their therapists to talk about it, and they absolutely don't have to, but by being here and creating artwork, the nonverbal exploration can be insightful in ways that might augment their therapy. Austen Riggs is a place that gives people the space to discover who they are, and the visual arts are one of the best tools for enabling people to do just that.