Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Art Therapy Links Marjory Stoneman Douglas Students To Painting, Healing

In the days after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, students came to the Coral Springs Museum of Art to paint stars for the International Peace Garden.
Caitie Switalski
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

It’s been close to a month since the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 people dead and 15 more injured. In a city neighboring Parkland, one museum is making art therapy for students a weekly ritual. 

 

Kathryn Doll is an art therapist and one of the licensed clinical social workers leading the art healing group at the Coral Springs Museum of Art.“It’s a great way for people to express things that are just too hard to talk about,” she said. “And I think it really highlights the resiliency that we’re seeing in some of these kids.”

Doll has seen many of the students return to more than one healing session, and some are using a lot of maroon, Douglas’s school color, in their artwork. 

But Doll isn’t not the only one who sees what art can do for those affected.

Al Razza is a local Coral Springs artist who teaches art classes at the museum. Some of his students are enrolled at Douglas or work there. He’s in talks with the city of Coral Springs to use some of his own artworkfor a healing display soon.

“I did a lot of work with hearts and gears and wires and chains...all of these little elements that bind us and grip us and hold us in place,” Razza said.

 

In Art Healing Sessions, students, parents, and anyone effected by the shooting can come to free paint, or work on other structured art projects coordinated each Tuesday.
Credit Caitie Switalski / WLRN
/
The Florida Channel
In Art Healing Sessions, students, parents, and anyone effected by the shooting can come to free paint, or work on other structured art projects coordinated each Tuesday.

Razza hopes the community, and his students, can use his pieces to heal.

“Each child, adult, whoever needs it would create their own chain link and add it to the artwork,” he said. 

Brittany Curtis is the Coral Springs Museum of Arts education and programs manager. She's the one who helped the museum come up with its community response after the shooting and implemented the healing sessions.

"How can you plan for something like this?,” she asked. “It happened and we sat down as a museum team and said, 'OK, what can we do?’ We feel so helpless...We wanted to make a positive impact with this program so it doesn't feel as helpless."

The art therapy sessions are open to anyone affected by the shooting and will be running weekly for the foreseeable future, according to the museum. 

The healing sessions run from 3 p.m. through 5:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoons inside  the museum located at2855 Coral Springs Dr. Coral Springs, FL 33065.

The stars were used to hang from trees in the International Peace Garden outside the museum in Coral Springs, not far from the high school.
Credit Caitie Switalski / WLRN
/
The Florida Channel
The stars were used to hang from trees in the International Peace Garden outside the museum in Coral Springs, not far from the high school.

Copyright 2020 WLRN 91.3 FM. To see more, visit WLRN 91.3 FM.

Caitie Switalski is a rising senior at the University of Florida. She's worked for WFSU-FM in Tallahassee as an intern and reporter. When she's in Gainesville for school, Caitie is an anchor and producer for local Morning Edition content at WUFT-FM, as well as a digital editor for the station's website. Her favorite stories are politically driven, about how politicians, laws and policies effect local communities. Once she graduates with a dual degree in Journalism and English,Caitiehopes to make a career continuing to report and produce for NPR stations in the sunshine state. When she's not following what's happening with changing laws, you can catchCaitielounging in local coffee shops, at the beach, or watching Love Actually for the hundredth time.