Imani Shanklin Roberts’s ‘As We Are’ BIPOC Art Therapy Interventions

In 2024 I began AS WE ARE, a bi-weekly open art-making group with a therapeutic intention that gives BIPOC individuals an opportunity to be in the community while engaging in art therapy interventions in a therapeutically held safe space. This group has been hosted by the Chela Mitchell Gallery in the Northeast Neighborhood of Washington, DC. In this open group, individuals establish a deeper sense of awareness, build inner and group harmony, and ultimately move toward individual and collective healing. Using a variety of mediums, participants utilize creative pathways to externalize, transgress, and transmute issues related to stress, isolation, fear, anxiety, safety, love, and so much more within communion with others. This project has been transformative for me as a practitioner and impactful for the participants who have been challenged with financial or availability barriers when looking for therapy. For many of my participants Art Therapy was not heard of or accessible, so creating this space has also given them more exposure to the use of multi-modal psychotherapies to unearth deep trauma, alleviate stress, manage anxiety, and work expressively through depression. The continuation of this FREE group is my authentic and holistic commitment to social impact. Having additional resources to replicate this offering in the new year and other donation-based or no-cost therapeutic art-making spaces for BIPOC individuals is my goal as an Art Therapist. I am requesting the full amount of the grant to provide materials, pay additional practitioners, and provide food and beverages for the next eight-week bi-weekly programming cycle that will begin in February 2025. I returned to returned home during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Re-entering the DC arts scene has been incredibly rewarding as an art therapist and artist who was born, raised, and inspired by the power and pride of black people within the district. I've had the opportunity to create multiple public art pieces in New York, where I resided for 10 years, and various other cities making pieces representing feminism, public health symbolism, and various themes in the black experience.