Read transcript
Download PowerPoint
The arts can be a connector to community, spirituality, and healing for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Learn from our panelists about how expressive activities, like painting or performing, helped people experiencing grief communicate, reflect, and process their emotions. This webinar was the last in a four-part series from the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) Religion and Spirituality Interest Network and RespectAbility.
Speaker Bios
Dr. Michelle Boulanger Thompson is an Assistant Professor in research and teaching. She earned her PhD in Special Education, Master of Science in Occupational Therapy, and post-baccalaureate Certificates in Autism and Leadership in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Literature from Indiana University. Dr. Thompson has worked as an occupational therapy practitioner for 34 years, working with individuals with disabilities and their families across the lifespan in early intervention (birth to age 3), public schools (ages 2-22), and adult home health. She serves on the Board of Directors for Mosaic, a national organization supporting community living needs for adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD), serves in a leadership and research role for the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities’ (AAIDD) Creative Arts special interest network, and serves on the Virginia Division on Early Childhood’s (VA-DEC) leadership board.
Dr. Yumi Shirai is the director of the Sonoran UCEDD ArtWorks, an instructor at the University of Arizona Department of Family and Community Medicine, a social behavioral scientist, and a trained modern dancer. She holds a PhD in Family Studies and Human Development and a MA in Dance, with an emphasis in Movement Therapy from the University of Arizona. Movement art has continuously provided her with a structured tool and unfolding opportunities to develop her physical, emotional, and intellectual strength, to process thoughts and life challenges, to share and engage with others in a larger community. She has instructed creative movement classes for diverse community populations for over 30 years, including youth, older patients in a hospital setting, and adults with intellectual disabilities. Merging her training in Movement Therapy and dance with over 17 years of applied fieldwork and scholarship in the social sciences, her passion is supporting aging individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their family members during late life transitions through development, implementation and evaluation of tools and model programs.
Jeanne Carrigan, Ph.D., A.T.R. has spent over 50 years working directly with children and adults experiencing cognitive challenges. During her lifetime of work as an art therapist, special educator, and university instructor, she has used the arts to foster communication and social and emotional health. She is now retired living with her Franciscan religious community in Wisconsin.
Jamelle Texeria has been a part of the ArtWorks art studio since the fall of 2023. He is a self-taught artist, whose work is characterized as Paleo-art, comic-style, and fan art in nature. His favorite medium is digital art through Krita, but he is also well-versed in graphite and ink.
During his artmaking process, he likes to feel prepared. He starts with research and knowledge on his subject matter, then he usually finds a reference image and begins to sketch. He is also part of a research project team for AIDD2Health: Access for Intellectually and/or Developmentally Disabled People to Health-Related Research Projects, serving as an advocate co-researcher.
