The Therapy of Art

Entitled ‘Art as an expression of Autism’, the exhibition was organised by Julia Townsend, assistant professor of visual communication and Arezu Karoobi, an AUD graduate who now teaches at the university.

Art therapy, it seems, is fast proving to be a positive step towards helping children with autism deal with daily challenges. Julia started volunteering at the Dubai Autism Center in 2007. “I had the opportunity to volunteer at the center once a week by helping the art teacher,” she shares. “I thought it would be great to exhibit some of their works here but the timing wasn’t right then. A few years later, Arezu (a former student of mine) who had been volunteering everyday the past year at the Center, brought up the idea and this time the timing was right.”

Arezu stresses the event is far more than just a tool for raising awareness. “I came up with the idea to exhibit the art therapy work so that it would also educate the community about art therapy and its relation to autism. The therapy sessions were one-on-one with each child, where I worked along with the art therapist. But it is not an art class,” she clarifies. “We provide them with all the materials, they choose what they want to work with and in this way, they express themselves. It is a great way for them to express their feelings, especially since children with autism don’t usually express their emotions.”

“It helps with their sensory skills,” she continues, “which some autistic children have a problem with. Working with the art materials helps them to overcome such problems. These children are also very hyperactive and have a lot of energy, so while working with the material they might crush some of the things or push the materials so hard, they break. Energy is released and as a result, they become calmer.”

Julia and representatives from the Dubai Autism Center recently gave a talk at the Art Couture gallery about the challenges faced by autistic children and art therapy’s role in it all. It is believed that autism has a strong genetic basis, however, it is still not fully understood. Julia says, “In some of the recent breakthroughs, they’ve been able to isolate two or three of the genes that autism stems from. The diagnosis of autism is a complicated one, because you cannot test a foetus for it. It is only diagnosed in the first or second year of a child. It’s a complicated diagnosis because the person has to talk with the parent, observe the child and carry out other tests.”

A five-year study conducted by Stephen Scherer of the University of Toronto and researchers from a consortium of 19 nations that appeared in the journal Nature Genetics stated that two genetic links that may dispose a child for autism were found. Neurexin 1 involved with glutamate, a brain chemical previously implicated in autism that plays a role in early brain development, is seen as a possible susceptibility gene for autism. Neurexins are a large family of proteins that act as a neuronal cell surface receptor. Together with mutations in the neuroligins genes, these have been implicated as having a role in autism.

The artwork the children created was able to instantly express their innocence and lightheartedness, mainly through abstract forms, as well as a variety of figurative details, little characters, some writings, little sentences and animals, and using mixed media such as collages and watercolours. Julia says, “The highest one was sold for Dh2,000, which was just bright oranges. It almost looked like a sunset. Even though it was abstract, you could almost see characters in it.”

Thirteen students from AUD volunteered for the event, during which cards and T-shirts representing the children’s artworks were also displayed and sold to the public.