Our group of MSU Students and Faculty worked with Peckham, Art in the HEART program. Peckham, Inc., a nonprofit vocational rehabilitation organization in Lansing MI.. Peckham’s Art from the Heart offers opportunities for creative experiences to people with disabilities and other barriers. Students are exposed to People first Language (2.), and go through disability trainings to work in the art studio. Our classroom is off campus in the art studio residing at Peckham’s main location in Lansing. The students create art alongside Peckham team members who have various disabilities. Students learn to be with partners rather than seeing their experience as a volunteer project. The spotlight is not on making of art but how to use art making as a tool for engagement. The students gain insight and self-reflection, they practice building trust, and they initiate relationships. The framing used for our reflections is a participant – observer model. These classes are a great opportunity for students to have a real-life educational experience inside and outside the academic sphere at the same time. They are living their learning.

We know that engaging creatively with the arts, unlocks healing powers in a person. In creative exploration, there is no right or wrong. Living with a disability does not have to hold a person back from enjoying the mental and physical health benefits of arts and creativity. And through collaborative art making we distribute agency to all. Students were