What started as a project for class now is a book that can assist art therapists.
“A Graphic Guide to Art Therapy,” written by Amy E. Huxtable, a 2019 graduate of the art therapy program at Emporia State University, was released September 21.
Huxtable said the goal of the project was to try “to make some of the things that I thought were complicated as a student more accessible to people.”
“I researched a lot about how graphics can be helpful in education,” Huxtable said.
“To relay that kind of information — why is this appropriate for high school, college, graduate school — was really terrific,” said Wolf Bordonaro. “I can imagine that other master’s projects that could cite that part (of the book): why is this visual imagery with the written part so important.”
“We made sure diversity was represented — diversity of gender, age, ethnicity — all of those things,” Wolf Bordonaro said. “Then we made sure we were capturing some of the contemporary discussions that are happening in the field.”
The book was co-written by ESU art therapy faculty Libby Schmanke and Dr. Gaelynn Wolf Bordonaro.
“Although we could address content areas, it was really important to have a graphic designer point out things like fonts and spaces and negative spaces and all of those things,” said Wolf Bordonaro. Huxtable sought and received guidance from ESU art associate professor Morgan Ford Willingham in that area.
Huxtable works as an art therapist at The University of Kansas Health System.
ESU’s art therapy program is one of the longest continuous programs in its area in the U.S. More information about the program is available at www.emporia.edu/arttherapy and housed in The Teachers College at Emporia State University.