Round I Projects
PROJECT
Mobile Healing Arts Studio
PROJECT FOCUS AREA:
Public health to stop the spread of COVID-19 and associated diseases or health disparities
ZIP CODE(S):
CONTRIBUTOR(S):
Ana Ruth Castillo
The Mobile Healing Art Studio campaign aims to offer an immersive, participant-driven experience focused on enhancing holistic well-being in the Healthy Places Index Communities of Santa Ysabel and Julian. Inherently collaborative, the studio allows for content and context flexibility and adaptability. Through therapeutic art directives and materials, participants engage in process-oriented creative activities, fostering social interaction. The chosen art projects address mental, emotional, and physical health, sparking ecological discussions on holistic well-being. Participants will embrace an intuitive, artistic process, prioritizing the journey over the final product, leading to creative flow, nervous system regulation, and collective homeostasis. The studio concludes with a reflective session where participants share their art, process, and insights, revealing cognitive and behavioral changes resulting from the healing power of the arts. This campaign encourages healthy behaviors and empowers individuals to find well-being through creativity. For Far South/Border North, Castillo is collaborating with artist Armando de la Torre and the Mobile Bio Art Lab. Both mobile studios will convene at specific sites to encourage exploring and contemplating ecological and climatic themes as an integral aspect of holistic well-being.
LEARN ABOUT THE ARTIST + CULTURAL PRACTITIONERS
Ana Ruth Castillo
Ana Ruth Yela Castillo is an art therapist, a mother, and a muralist of Guate-Mayan descent who engages the community in healing through creative expression. She began her career by developing after-school programming using poetry, theater, and muralism to empower the lives of youth. Listening to her student's stories of intergenerational trauma and resilience directed her toward the mental health field. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2017 with a dual master's in Family Therapy and Clinical Art Therapy. Ana Ruth moved with her family in 2019 to the beautifully rural and artsy town of Ramona in San Diego County. As a mother, a new journey began that informs both her clinical and intuitive skills as a therapeutic arts practitioner. Creative expression continues to be the bridge she trusts and uses to facilitate a naturally unfolding process connecting people to themselves, their medicine, and wisdom.