Opening the doors of art museums for therapeutic processes

The art museum, although an arena for education purposes, is still a novel venue for art therapy. However, art therapists are beginning to enter the doors of these institutions and incorporating art objects into treatment options for their clients. Concurrently, museums are searching for ways to widen their audience base and to attract non-traditional populations into their halls. Art therapists can be of great use to museums by bringing non-traditional groups to the museum and museums can be of value to art therapists by providing a rich resource for clients and for art therapy. This article summarizes the impact of the historical aspects of art museums and the role of the art museum educator to assist the art therapist in understanding how to approach art museums for client use. Additionally, an art therapy pilot project is described in which a local art museum was utilized to assist middle school students increase their awareness of the concept of family.