The IU Creative Arts for Vets program was formed three years ago to help veterans heal and improve mental health and well-being.
Todd Burkhardt, director of campus partnerships at the IU Center for Rural Engagement, is a co-creator of the program. He served in the U.S. Army for 28 years, and was stationed in the Middle East and Afghanistan. After he retired from the Army, he got depressed.
“I felt disconnected; I didn't feel like I fit in and just the whole transition was really hard for me,” Burkhardt said. “Trying to work through that, and also just carrying the weight of losing friends through invisible wounds, and also combat has played a role as well.”
Burkhardt said he found solace in doing art after art therapist Lauren Daugherty had invited him to an open studio at the Eskenazi Museum of Art.
“I was drawn to it,” Bukhardt said. “There was something about being able to express in a nonverbal way. There was something about expressing where sometimes you can't put words to the way you feel about things; it was incredibly impactful for me.”
Burkhardt and Daugherty then co-created the Creative Arts for Vets program in hopes of showing veterans the benefits of art and support them.
“It was tranquil and I thought maybe if it could somehow help me maybe it could help other people like me, who are veterans who are struggling maybe with various invisible wounds, whether that's in trying to transition or isolation or depression,” Burkhardt said.
He hosts an art workshop where veterans can color and decorate masks. Oils, pastels, water colors and markers are provided. Burkhardt thinks doing art helps veterans let go of the trauma and pain, and have an outlet where they can feel supported.
“It doesn't matter if you're a woman or a man or you serve three years or 30 years, or you served in the Vietnam War, the Cold War. We're all connected, we all served,” Burkhardt said. “There's this implicit level of trust.”
Burkhardt also organizes activities where veterans can do yoga, interact with therapy horses and learn to do needle felting.
CAV also sends out guidebook kits that include an art kit with materials and instructions to veterans all over the country. The Indiana Department of Health has helped fund these books; nearly 4700 books have been sent out since March.
“It increases access,” Burkhardt said. “You don't have to come my event; we're going to get some stuff to you.”
The organization and the IU Center for Veterans and Military Students are hosting an event Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Indiana Memorial Union. A film called “Just Like Me” will be shown afterwards at 7 p.m. at the IU Cinema.