The Art Engager Making museums more accessible through art therapy & wellness programmes with Richa Mehta
Today I’m so happy to be talking to Richa Mehta about her work. We’re talking about what a mindful museum is, museum-based art therapy and how art can support the development and exploration of identity and connection
Richa Mehta is a certified art therapist and educator working as a museum education and wellness professional at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.
Richa believes that the museum space can be more accessible to marginalised community members, through implementing museum-based wellness and art therapy programming and resources,.
In today’s episode we talk about her journey from the classroom to the museum and her recent studies in art therapy.
We discuss the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s journey to being a Mindful Museum and what this means for the staff and for the visitors, the collection and the museum space itself.
We explore what museum-based art therapy is and how it might work in practice. Richa shares a model of how she views museum-based art-therapy and an adaptation of See Think Wonder that could be used for these sessions. We also chat about how an art therapist would work with any strong emotions that came up in the museum environment.
And finally we talk about how being a third culture kid, and her cultural identity and background has influenced her practice and work today.
So here is our chat - enjoy!
Links
Join the Slow Looking Club Community on Facebook
Article for the Canadian Art Therapy Association https://www.canadianarttherapy.org/envisage/envisage-spring-2022-mehta
Louvre Abu Dhabi’s A Mindful Museum - https://www.louvreabudhabi.ae/en/about-us/a-mindful-museum
Mindful Art Moments - https://www.louvreabudhabi.ae/en/Whats-Online/mindful-art-moments
Reflect & Express - https://www.louvreabudhabi.ae/learning-resources/the-arts-for-health-and-wellbeing/en/reflect-and-express.html