Arts & Culture
This page includes a directory of community resources and upcoming events with creative arts and writing workshops, movies and film, music and performances, and podcast and radio shows, along with information about ongoing community arts programs and VA creative arts therapy.
Giselle Futrell is a co-founder of the Veterans Collaborative and the Chair of the Arts and Culture Resource Network, which brings together artists and writers in the military and veteran community, programs and organizations using the arts therapeutically and supporting professional veteran artists and writers, and everyone bearing witness to the lived experiences of the veteran community.
Upcoming Creative Arts Workshops & Events
Writing Workshops
Movies & Film
Music & Performances
Radio & Podcasts
Community Building Art Works
Community Building Art Works offers regular virtual art and writing workshops bringing together military and civilian community members from all over the country to learn and connect.
More Than One Story is a monthly program for women and non-binary military members and veterans can gather and experience belonging in a healthy, safe, and connected environment. Join an upcoming orientation session to participate in these interactive art and creative writing workshops.
National Veteran Art Museum
The NVAM’s Community Arts Project Fellowship creates genuine spaces for connection and engagement between veteran-artists and the public and builds a shared sense of purpose and connectedness between veterans and the public.
Ready to apply? Apply now.
NVAM Fellows are granted up to $30,000 based on need to develop an exhibition and workshop that is core to their artistic practice. Fellows are also provided an advisor for mentorship from professional artists, both veteran and non-veteran.
NVAM Fellows will be able to expand their professional art practice in the community through developing and delivering formal artist talks, leading workshops, and the opportunity to activate the NVAM collection through a hybrid residency.
The vision of the fellowship is to create art-based programs led by artists that connect the experiences of our veterans through art with a focus on strengthening personal and professional development for veteran-artists.
The fellowship culminates in a public exhibition at the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago where your work is on display with a community of veterans, artists, and local leaders. Fellows will share their story of service and artistic expression in a dialogue centered on understanding.
Veteran Art Summits
The Veteran Art Summit is an event that showcases the visual, literary, performative, and creative works of veterans and explores the impact of war on veterans and how artists have responded to war.
Armed Services Arts Partnership
ASAP offers a creative community with free virtual art & comedy classes and workshops for veterans, service members, military spouses, family members, and caregivers ranging from three hours to two days. There are programs in acting, comedy, storytelling, writing, improv, and visual arts. Supporters are also invited to join the audience for performances by graduating cohorts.
VA Creative Arts Therapy
The VA provides Creative Arts Therapy (CAT) services under the Office of Rehabilitation & Prosthetic Services. VA-enrolled veterans may access CAT services at VA facilities through consultation/referral from their primary care provider or another provider.
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RT’s Creative Arts Therapy program provides evidence-based clinical treatment interventions intended to promote veterans’ health through recovery, rehabilitation, and wellness with art therapy, dance and movement therapy, drama therapy, and music Therapy. The CAT service supports, maintains, and improves psychosocial, physical, and cognitive health, enhancing sensorimotor function, emotional resilience, and social and coping skills; and positively impacts veterans’ quality of life by providing of achievement and engaging them in a process to channel their energy into productive behaviors.
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VA defines Community Reintegration as a treatment modality, training tool, and protocol within the RT/CAT service line “to ensure a veteran’s safe integration with the least restrictive environment.” VA Community Reintegration protocols may take place outside the predictable environment of the VA medical facility. Like other RT/CAT interventions, including adaptive sports and “leisure education,” veterans must receive a referral from their VA provider.
RT’s community reintegration program is available to all VA enrollees who need it.
An RT/CAT provider must indicate whether a particular intervention will benefit the veteran for a therapeutic purpose contained within their treatment plan.
One purpose of community reintegration interventions is to assess a veteran’s ability to manage in community-based settings through an experiential process / community reintegration method.
RT/CAT team members also provide veterans with Community Reintegration Training to improve independent functioning impaired by illness or injury if it is expected to be helpful. Veterans’ individual needs determine the purpose and setting of individualized community reintegration plans.
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Facility points of contact for local VA RT/CAT programs are listed below by healthcare system:
VA Bedford: Andrew J. Geddry, Supervisory Recreation Therapist (781) 687-3237
VA Central Western Massachusetts: Donna Hayes, Lead Recreation Therapist (413) 584-4040 x2350
VA Boston: Jeffrey Lewis, Supervisory Recreation Therapist (774) 826-3625
Areas of need aligned with treatment goals within the CAT service line involve the veteran’s functioning with regard to problem solving, communication, judgment, behavioral control, task segmentation or sequencing, leisure or community resources, and self-advocacy.
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What Care is Offered by VA Creative Arts Therapy Service Line
VA facility directors ensure facilities provide CAT services based on enrolled veterans’ needs, including by supporting efforts to increase access for all veterans who demonstrate a need and integrating CAT therapists into healthcare teams.
Facility CAT supervisors collaborate with community partners and VA service lines to ensure all eligible veterans have easy access to state-of-the-art services and to make needed services available to all referred veterans, delivering individualized, evidence-based services focused on outcomes.
As with most services offered within the VA, veterans must receive a referral from their VA provider to participate in CAT programs. This requires that both veterans and providers across all VA services be aware of the nature and availability of CAT services and programs.
The Chief Patient Care Services Officer, Rehabilitation & Prosthetic Services, Office of Patient Care Services is responsible for the content of VHA Directive 1172.05.
VHA Directives supersede other national, VISN-level, and facility-level policies or memos issued to the extent they are in conflict. Directives articulate the reason for issue and provide key definitions; background for the policy and related authorities; exemptions; and the Offices and individuals responsible for its implementation, training, and oversight.
What is Included in the VA Medical Benefits Package
In general, the entire VA medical benefits package is available to all VA enrolled veterans. Specific care must provided when it is determined by a VA provider that the care aligns with generally accepted practice standards and will promote, preserve, or restore the health of a particular veteran.
Care preserves health if it maintains a veteran’s current quality of life or daily functioning, prevents disease progression, cures disease, or extends the veteran’s life span.
Care promotes health if it enhances a veteran’s quality of life or daily functioning, prevents future disease, or identifies a predisposition for a condition or early disease onset which can be ameliorated to any extent through monitoring or early diagnosis and treatment.
Care restores health if it restores a veteran’s quality of life or daily functioning lost due to illness or injury.
“Fine art is the discipline of breaking rules.”