Within the Heart of the Media

Activist Project: A Window Between Worlds

AWBW – A Window between Worlds is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to using art to help support victims of domestic violence. With the help of creative expression, battered and beaten women and children gain a sense of renewal and power after their experience at home. Since 1991 AWBW has provided creative expression as a healing tool for over 40,000 beaten women and their children, the art helps empowers survivors to transform how they view themselves and allowing them to see past their abuse and gain self-confidence. A Window between Worlds is solely a U.S company and has opened over 100 exhibits in nineteen states. They put together different exhibits in different locations such as museums, art centers, colleges and department stores. One of these exhibits is called Monster in Me which gives children and women a safe way to explore some of the difficult feelings that result from living with abuse, by creating a ‘monster’ that represents the different emotions from the events that occurred before arriving at the shelters, survivors can honour their feelings by dealing with them in a healthy way to help cope with them and move on with their lives. It allows them to break the silence that keeps them isolated, afraid and ashamed. AWBW has been a great success, in 2007 alone they provided over 6,440 workshops for women and children in shelters, in women’s programs 96% found they felt more positive after workshops and 98% of children said that the workshops helped them express themselves and deal with their past in a non-violent way. Art can be very therapeutic, whether it be through drawing, painting, making music, singing, dancing, any type of art form that allows someone to express themselves is very important for someone to have. Having that is very important for them to feel good about themselves by releasing the hidden emotions inside because they need to find some way out of their darkness. This organization is very important because it focuses in on one form of weakness, everyone involved in these workshops have all come from situations of domestic violence which helps everyone to feel more comfortable with their surroundings. When someone comes from a situation involving any type of violence or abuse there are many different feelings, emotions and fears that the individual will have, it is easiest for them to get support and confidence from people that have also dealt with similar situations as them. It is a very different organization where victims of violence are physically doing something such as drawing or painting; they can be creative and deal with things at their own pace and in their own way because everyone has different situations to deal with. This organization was very appealing to me, they have a great support group and they are different from all the other groups because there is a physical aspect to the whole support side. I think more attention needs to be paid to those suffering from domestic violence so that the victims will have a place to go and thankfully AWBW has done that.

Works Cited

‘A Window Between Worlds; Art as a Healing Tool’ AWBW

posted by Brittany Pacitti's Mass Communications @ 6:39 AM