How Can Art be Used for Healing?

The role of art for healing allows a person to express their thoughts and feelings in a way that words cannot. This is important because holding on to what we are feeling often makes our feelings worse and we miss the opportunity to grow from them. Art is also the chance to move around any forms of censorship. Oftentimes minority groups do not get the platform to speak out on how they are feeling because many groups of people do not believe their words hold enough value to give them the time and space needed. This is one of the reasons the Wing Luke Museum holds a lot of value in the Asian American community as the museum makes it a priority to give a platform to these shunned communities. An example of this is from the exhibit The Reorient where four artists take the opportunity given to them by the Wing Luke Museum and utilize color schemes, different materials, and methods of delivery to create their vision for what it means to speak through one’s art and therefore heal. Writer Harlan Liu from the TeenTix article "Reorient": Processing Immigration Through Art, mentioned that “without the title or the caption beneath it, (they) would likely not have known the complexity of the art piece, losing some of the depth.” However, I must disagree with this statement presented by Harlan as I believe that art doesn’t always have to be so straightforward. I think by adding the title/caption beneath the artwork would have allowed for the visitor to lose some of the value of piecing out the meaning themselves. Also, the author had purposefully chosen to leave it and they did so with their own reasons and direction. The author’s story is what they have and it makes them who they are, so we should not dictate how they choose to share it.