Art Therapy Trainings

A Mexican 'Lucha Libre' Wrestler Is Sewing Masks To Fight Coronavirus Hijo del Soberano was already designing lucha libre costumes on the side. Since his wrestling venue shut amid Mexico's lockdown, he's turned to making masks. "I just altered my skills a bit," he says.

Getting Through a Pandemic With Old-Fashioned Crafts Like many others in these times, I've turned to arts such as crochet and knitting to make sense of the chaos around me.

Minor Offenders Can Substitute Jail Time for an Art Class at the Brooklyn Museum The new program allows people arrested for minor offenses, like shoplifting or painting graffiti, to avoid jail time and a court appearance by taking a two-hour course.

Nine-year-old who kept getting in trouble for doodling in class lands job decorating restaurant Joe Whale was discouraged from doodling in class but found his calling when a restauranteur found his work online.

They unexpectedly fell into teaching kids about crime with storytelling using found puppets.

“We found this old box while cleaning the police station a few years ago, and we were about to break it down and destroy it. But I said to Elba: ‘If we could somehow fit inside there, we could start a puppet show.’ So that was the beginning of Lilly and Mo. We did everything ourselves. We made the puppets. We painted the stage. We gave some cake and coffee to the boys in the radio room, and they gave us a transformer. We held our first show for the kids and grandchildren of our colleagues. Our boss let us use his office. We powered everything with an old car battery. One of the puppet’s heads fell off, and the box broke so we fell through the wall, but we eventually figured it out. We’ve done about 200 shows over the last few years. Every week a kindergarten class comes to the station. And on weekends we travel to parks and squares. We’re just trying to teach basic crime prevention. Maybe Lilly will see a fire and call for help. Or a stranger will offer her a ride, and we’ll ask the kids what she should say. A lot of times we forget our lines. But the kids don’t know the story, so they never seem to notice.”

(Berlin, Germany)

'It's spectacular': Climate activists paint stunning mural on two blocks of Montgomery St. The morning rush-hour traffic in San Francisco's Financial District was slower than usual Wednesday, an in some cases came to a half, as climate protesters marched in the core downtown areas.

Wow!

Kids crayon-colored thousands of frames to help animate this music video Kids crayon-colored thousands of frames to help animate this music video

Girl with autoimmune disease creates teddy bears that hide IV bags Ella gets regular IV infusions because of an autoimmune condition, which inspired her to create a product that hides the IV bags behind cuddly teddy bears.

“I wanted to be a famous author. Literature has been my passion since childhood. But whenever you have a passion, it’s so easy to convince yourself that you’re not good at it. Because you read all these fantastic authors. And then you try to write yourself, and you learn how difficult it can be to write a single perfect sentence. It’s so much work to be happy with what you’ve written. And sometimes you choose life. We’re in Paris, it’s sunny, I have wonderful friends-- maybe I should just be enjoying these things instead of thinking about how to package and share them. So I got a job in communications. And I mainly just wrote for my own enjoyment: poems, notes, journals. But I never shared a thing. Not a single page. With anyone. But last year I wrote a story. A complete story. A real story. With two characters, a beginning, and an end. I thought: ‘Maybe it’s not too bad. We must test. Maybe this is the moment.’ So a few months ago I submitted it to a contest in my town. It’s just a small town. And just a very little contest. But this morning I got the email. I won the prize. And I’m just so happy. This weekend I’m going to the beach with my family. I can’t wait to tell my mother. I can’t believe I get to say these words--the greatest words: ‘I will be published.’”

(Paris, France)