Expressive Arts
Inspiring Creativity
Cultivating Community
Nurturing Emotional Wellness
What is Expressive Art?
Expressive art refers to creating art in a way that focuses on the process rather than the end product for the purpose of healing, growth, and self-discovery.
Engaging in expressive art is known to help both children and adults deal with negative situations, trauma, grief, stress, and anxiety. It awakens the imagination, improves mood and cognition, promotes healing, and strengthens relationships.
The Bergamot Institute facilitates expressive art programs throughout the greater Phoenix area with artist volunteers and donated materials.
Bergamot Expressive Art Programs
Mutant Pi
ñ
ata Making
A community art making event like no other! We provide an abundance of blank paper mache bases in various shapes that are ready to be built upon with paint, fabrics, flowers, toys, and doll parts for the spontaneous sculpted creation of unique ‘Mutant’ Piñatas. Express your inner creativity while building uplifting relationships with your community.
Contact us to bring a wild mutant Piñata making event to you!
Grief and Trauma Support
Expressive Arts are powerful tools for healing, providing an opportunity for nonverbal communication, to release pain and process trauma that can feel too difficult to discuss.
Grief can feel beyond words and impossible to express. It is while creating that we are able to access the depths of our emotions to help us process and heal.
Contact us to bring the healing power of expressive art to your group.
Spontaneous Sculpting
We provide recycled and re-purposed materials to facilitate spontaneous sculpting sessions with individuals and groups of all ages. These sessions focus on the process of creating while working with unusual materials and no rules for what can or cannot be created.
Contact us to bring a Spontaneous Sculpting session to you!
Mad Hatting
A community art hat-making extravaganza that takes place annually during the Grand Avenue Festival in downtown Phoenix! We provide an abundance of ordinary hats gathered from local thrift shops that are ready to be built upon with feathers, flowers, pom-poms, and toy parts for the spontaneous sculpted creation of over-the-top fantastic hats. The hats are then worn throughout the festival creating a colorful moving art installation reflecting our community as one magnificent entity.
This event is funded and supported by Grand Avenue Arts and Preservation and is free for anyone in the community to participate.
Open Air Painting
We bring materials and supplies to public parks throughout the greater Phoenix/Tempe/Mesa area for spontaneous painting, free for anyone in the community to participate!
Contact us to bring an Open Air Painting session to you!
Upcoming Open Air Painting session:
Saturday, November 30, 2024
12 Noon - 2pm
Pioneer Park, Mesa AZ
After School
Expressive Art
We provide materials and supplies to facilitate expressive art clubs in schools or facilities that otherwise wouldn’t have access to arts programming.
Our volunteers create an encouraging environment for young artists to explore their innate creativity through artistic play.
Contact us to bring a Bergamot program to you!