The reason for the Art Musketeers

The Art Musketeers is an initiative that focuses on using the process of art making as a way to build resilience and provide children with an immediate and accessible mechanism for coping with sad thoughts and feelings around the bad things that sometimes happen around them.

There are three main ways we use creativity as coping mechanisms to control our emotions:

• a distraction tool – using creativity to avoid stress
•  a contemplation tool – using creativity to give us the mind space to reassess problems in our lives and make plans
•  a means of self-development to face challenges by building up self-esteem and confidence

Alicia Hall, process artist and founder of the Art Musketeers

Hi, I’m Alicia Hall. I am a process artist and community arts facilitator. I also helped create the Art Musketeers book – the first in a planned series to show children how to work through their feelings by doing creative things with their hands.

I love to show others how to make art with fibre, with the idea that it’s the act of making, not what is made that’s important.

The Art Musketeers came about because, well, bad stuff happens in life and we need to find better and more accessible ways to deal with it.

For me, it’s in the act of making my art. Using your hands on a focus task is proven as a way to cope with things and build mental resilience and confidence.

It took seeing my own grandson turning to art making to cope with the bad things happening in our family – his world – to show me that children need tools to cope and build resilience that they can pick up on their own.

Self-directed self care from an early age – what an amazing and powerful gift to bestow on our young people.

What are the benefits of process art?

Process Art is art that is self-directed, choice-driven, and celebrates the experience of discovery. In process art, the final product is always unique and the focus lies in the creation of the work, not the outcome.

Process art is developmentally appropriate for young children because it meets them where they are as sensory explorers.

Through process art, children:

• will think creatively, independently, and imaginatively
• will learn about the physical limitations and possibilities of materials
• are encouraged to use creative and critical thinking skills
• will gain confidence to realize their own ideas
• are motivated to ask questions and experiment
• will embrace experimentation and mistakes as part of the learning process