Interview: Evan Weiss of Integrity House

1. What is the genesis of the Creative Arts Initiative at Integrity House?

The Creative Arts Initiative began (unofficially) in the Summer of 2023 with the founding of a small book club in Integrity House’s Newark-based residential substance use disorder (SUD) treatment program. The goal of the book club was to provide an opportunity for clients to stretch their mental muscles a bit and to find inspiration in stories about human beings who struggle and persevere. Along the way, the book club participants expressed interest in doing some of their own writing. Together, we learned about and wrote Haiku, free verse, short stories, and personal essays. Before long, we incorporated visual art too: illustration, painting, photography, vision boarding and collage work, just to name a few. By the Fall of 2023, our once humble book club had been transformed into a full pilot program for a multi-faceted creative arts initiative.

The Creative Arts Initiative (CAI) is not modeled after one specific program. It combines successful elements from a number of models, including several intermediary academic art curricula and undergraduate creative writing workshops.

2. What art modalities are clients engaging in through the creative arts initiative?

The CAI consists of three general categories of creative activity: bibliotherapy (reading and discussion), creative writing, and visual art.

In our bibliotherapy groups, clients read works of short and long fiction and discuss them in small group settings. The books and stories we select usually depict a protagonist undergoing dramatic change in their lives. One of our recent reads, Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, is a tale of lost innocence and abuse that takes place inside of a reformatory in the Jim Crow south; it resonates deeply with clients who’ve been subjected to the traumas of jail and prison.

In our creative writing workshops, clients learn about and experiment with a number of writing forms, including poetry (Haiku, free verse, sonnets), short fiction, and personal essays. With the support of The Healthcare Foundation of NJ, we’ve enlisted professional writers to instruct and coach our clients in some of these areas.

Our visual arts workshops encourage creative expression and non-verbal symbolization while stimulating mindfulness and improving emotional coping skills. Visual art activities include, but are not limited to: guided illustration, painting (watercolor, acrylic, oil pastels, etc.), vision boarding, collage work, pop art, protest/advocacy art, glass etching, texture art, and both digital and analog photography.

3. Tell us about the role that Peer Specialists play in the program. How do they work to enhance the experience of participants.

Peer Recovery Specialists play a crucial role in supporting client participation in creative arts activities. Peers are responsible for logistical tasks such as connecting clients with the CAI and providing them with opportunities and resources to work on projects outside of group. They also assist with transportation to and from community events. Most importantly, though, peers help to affirm the value of the creative work that our clients do. During the aforementioned poetry workshop series, one of our peers, a well-known local poet in his own right, provided crucial feedback to clients on their writing and performance, and even came into work on the weekend to help participants refine their poems before the culminating event of the series.

4. Can you speak about the results that clients are seeing? How does participation in the CAI compare to participation in other substance abuse treatment programs?

We consider our program highly unique among substance use treatment programs that feature creative arts, not least because of our formal evaluation model, which aims to measure the impact of creative arts services on three main areas closely linked to emotional health: loneliness, depression, and cognitive and affective mindfulness.

The tools we use to measure improvements in these areas are: the UCLA Loneliness Scale (loneliness), the Patient Health Questionnaire – 9 or “PHQ-9” (Depression), and the Ohio State University Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale or “CAMS-R” (Mindfulness). We are extremely encouraged by our results in each area. In year one of the program, a majority of participants reported stability or improvements in each of three evaluation areas listed above.

5. Newark has a vibrant arts scene. Have you been able to tap into local venues and artists to take part in the initiative?

The Newark arts scene has been crucial to the success of our program, and the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey has helped facilitate Integrity House’s involvement in a number of community art activities in and around Newark. The Integrity House CAI collaborates with Obscura Darkroom located inside of the Project for Empty Space to provide our clients with training in analog and digital photography, and Sunflower Studios in Downtown Newark so that our clients could participate in a half-day paper-making workshop.

Presently, we are on our second year of an ongoing collaboration with Newark School of the Arts in a workshop series with Teaching Artist Ashley Baptiste that combines  drama, written and spoken word poetry, musical performance, and dance. Just last month, we hosted a spoken word poetry workshop series overseen by poet, actor and performance coach Robert Galinsky, culminating in a public “Poetry SLAM” held onsite at Integrity House. This month, visiting authors Lucas Maas and Amelia Barros will conduct a month-long writing workshop series titled “The Art of the Personal Essay.”

6. Can you tell us about the Migrations journal? And where else might be public be able to see some of the incredible artworks generated through this program?

Migrations: The Artistic and Literary Journal of Integrity House is one of a kind! It is the only professional art and literature journal in New Jersey composed entirely of work by clients receiving care for substance use and mental health concerns. More specifically, it features exemplary works of prose, poetry, personal essays, photography, and other visual art projects completed by our clients in the creative writing and visual art workshops described above.

Our clients work will be featured in another edition of Migrations at the end of this year. Additionally, their work can be seen on Integrity House’s Instagram page and other social media accounts. Last year, in collaboration with Obscura Darkroom and Project for Empty Space, we held a public exhibition of client artwork and photography. We hope to conduct another public exhibition sometime in the near future.