
Arts For Veterans and At-Risk Youth




Starting in 2018, Lake Arts Project added new layers of collaboration with a focus on Veterans and At Risk Youth by teaming up with Milwaukee's Feast of Crispian.
Moving Beyond the Battlefield, The HeART of War, and War, Words, Dance also included partners: DNAWorks, Catey Ott Dance Collective, Ryan Meisel, and Milwaukee's Alliance School. Workshops led by Feast of Crispian, and these amazing groups included creative and therapeutic exercises with the veterans, youth, and dancers.
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The Veterans and Youth created strong bonds through shared stories of personal trauma and life challenge, acting and movement exercises, and drum circles. Lake Arts Project then took the lead in transforming these stories and experiences into performance through rehearsal and opportunities to continue connecting. Dance artists: professional and amateur interpreted the stories to create a powerful multi-arts performance of original dance, music, and visual art where the veterans and youth could participate as a performer and/or experience their personal stories in new, less traumatic ways, and feel the a sense of resolve that came with the audience perspective: applause and fulfillment.
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Art, in all of its forms, has been highlighted as a strong tool in healing, particularly among military veterans with PTSD. The arts continue to prove their value of healing through healthy, non-violent expression.








