Q&A
Karen Loew shares impact of Coast Guard Art Program on veterans
1:26:10
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144 sec
Karen Loew, Chair of the Coast Guard Art Program Committee at the Salmagundi Club, shares her experiences with how art has positively impacted veterans and active-duty service members. She provides examples of how art has helped veterans feel seen and understood.
- Loew describes how her artwork helped a Coast Guard serviceman explain his job to his children
- She discusses the value of art exhibitions in helping veterans engage with the civilian population
- Loew shares an example of how art therapy has helped veterans find happiness and peace
Robert Holden
1:26:10
Would you have something like that?
1:26:11
I don't know if you want to you can top that one, but
Karen Loew
1:26:14
Well, it's not I'm not here to top that.
1:26:16
I'm here to
Robert Holden
1:26:16
applaud that.
1:26:16
No, no.
1:26:17
But I don't want to put pressure on you.
1:26:19
I'm here to
Karen Loew
1:26:19
applaud that.
1:26:20
I wanna digress to one thing you'd said earlier about being in the arts yourself.
1:26:24
And I've often used the phrase that dead artists make all the money, the rest of us have to work for a living.
1:26:29
So I understand your interest in graphic arts as well.
1:26:32
Mine too.
1:26:34
As an artist for the Coast Guard Art Program, my art, my own art, that contributes strictly about the Coast Guard.
1:26:41
And, it's about the, men and women, the active duty, not the generals, not the, admirals, not the officers per se, it's the everyday.
1:26:51
And on one occasion, a piece I had done was based on a photograph in public affairs.
1:26:56
And you show the back of the serviceman reaching over to help someone in one of those floating rafts out in the ocean.
1:27:04
It's first a rescue mission before it's anything else.
1:27:08
And we didn't know who this person was.
1:27:10
But once this art becomes part of the program, it's out there on the Internet and this person contacts me.
1:27:16
And he said, my kids never understood what I do every day.
1:27:21
He said, your image helped explain it to them and it's made my 12 years in the service all worthwhile.
1:27:28
It's suddenly he felt he felt seen.
1:27:30
And his family understood what he did.
1:27:33
And on the veteran side, we have these shows at Salmagundi Club, I've learned a lot myself.
1:27:38
I see the value that it has for the public of seeing the art, talking with the artists, hearing their poetry and watching them come out of their shell and want to engage with the civilian population so that we understand better their life of service, their commitment after that life.
1:27:58
It's, one of the first times we did this, there was a woman who was part of the, VA who was an art therapist, a licensed art therapist.
1:28:07
And it was all about what art therapy does and brings to this situation.
1:28:12
So she had a panel after, the exhibition and one gentleman said, he says, I used to be a happy person.
1:28:19
So it showed what the service had, how it had changed him and how art was opening him back up to finding some kind of happiness and peace in his life.
1:28:29
So I've seen that transformation 1 by 1 in the arts that I've watched and observed.
1:28:34
It's been very powerful.
