Art Programs for Veterans
To honor our brave servicemen and women this Veterans’ Day, we wanted to highlight some programs and resources available for Veterans interested in the arts as a means for healing, coping with post-combat afflictions, or simply looking for a creative outlet.
Operation We Are Here offers a compendium of programs across the country for veterans interested in visual art, theater, film, dance, writing, and expressing themselves in a creative way. Their website also includes a vast list of resources for family members and supporters of military and veteran families.
For you podcast junkies: the Veteran Artist Program hosts a poignant podcast covering topics that encourage and promote veterans in the arts. Give it a listen!
Near our office in St. Petersburg, Florida, Zen Glass Gallery and Studio runs Operation Zen, a program aimed to help active service members and veterans learn to express themselves with glass as an artistic outlet. The laid-back atmosphere allows service members to create, experiment, and find their own personal zen space while re-focusing to learn a new skill set; to blow glass.
Outside of our home base in Denver, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center (CPAC) offers a Veterans Workshop Series every year. The four-month-long program provides advanced education in photography to Denver-area Veterans, at no cost to them. Participants learn to refine technical skills, hone ideas into a body of work, create a portfolio, write about their work, and present their projects to the community in a public exhibition at CPAC’s gallery.
In our nation’s capital, DC by Foot offers guided tours of the National Mall (and beyond), where you can experience the national memorials coupled with information to better understand and appreciate their purpose in honoring our soldiers, fallen and living, who fought in Korea, Vietnam, and World War II. We recommend the Memorials & Moonlight tour as most of the memorials are most impactful after sunset, offered this Wednesday at 5:30 pm for a donation of your choice.
Some of the most well-known artists have been veterans, including Sol LeWitt (U.S. Army) whose thought leadership helped shape the way we approach contemporary art production; Robert Rauschenberg (U.S. Navy) who set the stage for the U.S. Pop Art movement; and American studio glass pioneer Harvey Littleton (U.S. Army). Of course, you don’t need to have huge artistic aspirations to benefit from any of the programs we’ve listed! A desire to try something new, embrace the creative process, and maybe get your hands dirty is all it usually takes.
On behalf of the staff at rare tempo and outspoke, THANK YOU to all of our active duty and retired servicemen and women.