WHAT IS THE CREATIVE CHANGE PROJECT?

This is a collective art project for all survivors of Institutional Child Abuse (ICA) to contribute a personal piece of art. All of our art will be displayed together online as a gallery to both educate OTHERS on the experiences of institutionalized youth, and help survivors worldwide know that they are not alone.

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?

There are some guidelines for this project which will be listed below. But first know that the types of art you can contribute are as diverse as your imagination! It could simply be a photograph of a handwritten note or poem, a photo you edited on your phone, a drawing, collage, picture of a sculpture, even a meme you make. The only formats I can not curate into a gallery will be video or audio, it must be a still, visual image. After you create your image, you can email it to me at creativechangeproject@gmail.com with any information or a caption you would like to include with your art piece. You can choose to use your name or be anonymous (but do tell me which).

GUIDELINES:

• Please make images in 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratio, like a postcard. Landscape or portrait orientation is fine.

• Your art can be about anything related to Institutional Child Abuse— your experiences, your healing, your fight for justice or advocacy, etc. (you can have words on your art or no words, your choice!)

• Keep file format to either .jpg or .png

• When you email your art to creativechangeproject@gmail.com, please include either your name or request to be anonymous, and a short blurb either about your art or yourself if you wish it to be included in the caption of your contribution. If you’d like it to direct to a website, please include the link.

• I will share every piece sent to me so long as it does not include actual images of self-harm. I do not want anyone causing harm to themselves to create their piece. I also cannot share art that doxes other people’s identities. If there is very adult imagery (like sexual nudity) it may have to be censored for social media posts, so please be aware of this. I also have to censor “curse” words on social media posts so they don’t get flagged, but will not censor on this website.

• Art can be healing and also activating. Please lean into support if you find the process of creating your art to be upsetting!

• Need some inspiration? Try using one of these prompts to start from!

  • What do you wish you could tell yourself back when you were an institutionalized youth?

  • What do you wish others knew about Institutional Child Abuse or the “Troubled Teen” Industry?

  • What is an impact on your life today that is a result of Institutional Child Abuse?

  • What do you want to tell others abused in institutions?

  • What would you share with children kept in institutional settings today?

  • In what ways/ how have you been able to heal as an adult?

  • If you are a loved one of an ICA survivor, what do you wish you could tell them? What has changed in your life as a result of what has happened to your loved one? What do you wish you could change for children and survivors?

 WHERE WILL MY ART BE SHOWN?

Each submission to the gallery will be shared on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and will remain as a collection on a webpage as www.youthindisorder.com/CreativeChange. Youthindisorder.com is a simple website educating on the TTI and ICA and is not monetized in any way, nor affiliated with any organization. NO artist’s work will be sold or monetized (unless YOU do that separately). Your art belongs to only you, and can be removed anytime you ask. The only monetization of this project would only ever be selling t-shirts of the Creative Change logo if it takes off, in order to support the project ongoing and raise awareness.

If you make a physical piece of art (and send a digital image of it for submission) please keep your physical art! It is my hope that if this project grows enough we may be able to turn it into an in-person art installation one day to further raise awareness.

Thank you, artists!

With love,

Jen Robison, Youth in Disorder creator

TIP: If you are wanting to make art using your phone or computer try using an application like PicsArt or Canva! Both have free features and lots of ways to edit/create imagery.