Art grief group starts Dec. 5 at Art Center East

By LISA BRITTON Baker City Herald – Nov 29, 2024 Updated Dec 3, 2024

LA GRANDE — Becky Curry knows art can help heal at any stage of life.

Curry has led an art grief group at La Grande’s Art Center East in the past, and she’s starting another round of sessions Thursday, Dec. 5, which is National Grief Week.

The class continues on Thursdays through Dec. 19, then again on Thursdays in January, 6-8:30 p.m. at ACE, 1006 Penn Ave. (enter through the Fifth Street door).

The group is free and offered as a partnership with the Center for Human Development and ACE. To register, visit artcentereast.org or call 541-624-2800.

Curry is an artist and an occupational therapist with CHD. She worked in the mental health field for eight years and has used art and other activities in group work.

Art, she said, has helped in her own journey after losing her brother and her dad.

“I’ve attended grief groups myself,” she said. 

The art class series begins with rules and expectations, which include confidentiality.

“A series is ideal. It gives people a chance to know each other,” Curry said.

The focus is on listening, not giving advice.

“We’re accepting it as true to them,” she said.

Each class starts with 20 minutes when people can share, if they want.

“There’s no pressure,” Curry said.

If people do share, she said others are “really kind and compassionate.”

“I have a box of tissues we pass around. We welcome your tears,” she said.

Then it’s time for the art activity, and Curry can provide a grief-related prompt.

“Or they can make whatever they want,” she said.

The first goal of the group is to connect with others. The second goal is self compassion.

“Being with your grief in a way that is kind to yourself,” Curry said.

She said the art projects are beginner-friendly and focus on “process over outcome.”

“That’s part of behavioral self compassion, treating yourself kindly by doing an enjoyable activity,” she said. “Something as simple as choosing one color over another, just because you like it, can be an act of self compassion.”