The Sierra Project
The Sierra Project houses programs that promote creativity and resiliency for traumatic brain injury survivors, their siblings, and their caregivers via art: Paint It Forward, Weighted Paintbrush Project and This is Your Brain on Art Events (get-togethers, classes, retreats). Learn more about the value of art in the traumatic brain injury journey... Jump to In the Works
It's about Recycling Love
Paint It Forward Program
Our complementary Art Kits promote creativity and resiliency for traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors, siblings, and/or family caregivers. The kit contains art supplies and an information guide for support resources to help you along the TBI journey.
When you complete a piece of artwork, join other artists from our TBI community; together, our voices will not only be heard but seen. Upload it using our submission form and we'll post it to our online Art Gallery, Instagram, and Facebook. We'll use your artwork to promote Unmask the Invisible as we advocate for survivors, siblings, and family caregivers of TBI.
Art accesses many of the advanced processes of the human brain, such as intuitive analysis, expressivity, and embodied cognition. Artists are often better observers and have better memory, and this may be due to how art affects the brain’s plasticity.
—How The Brain Is Affected By Art, American College of Rehabilitative Medicine
In The works
Assisting the Disabled Artist
Weighted Paintbrush Project
We know how important it is for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivors to be patient with themselves and to find joy and meaning in the creative activities they can engage in, regardless of limitations. Various adaptive tools and techniques can assist individuals with limited fine motor skills. There are grips and weighted pens and pencils, but no weighted paintbrush. "Weighting" objects helps with ataxia and, for a brain-injured individual, it enables the brain to make stronger connections.
We are working with students from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth to develop a weighted paintbrush to assist individuals who struggle with ataxia.
Collaboration
If you have the expertise, time and talent to help make this project a reality, click on the Collaborate button below or please consider a donation to The Sierra Project --YOU can make a difference!
Getting Art Activated
This is Your Brain on Art
If you haven't read the article above on the extraordinary value of art for the brain, you can search the web and dig up article after article about the positive impact art has for any brain.
Unmask the Invisible will host various art-focused events to help support our mission to teach resiliency and inspire those adaptively living with Traumatic Brain Injury through art, education, and advocacy.
- Offering group tours of galleries and museums to connect survivors, caregivers, and their families.
- Intimate gatherings to share art tips and tricks and good company.
- Art Classes that accommodate both physical and mental barriers for survivors and allow for emotional expression for siblings and caregivers of the survivor.
- Retreats for survivors, caregivers, and siblings that incorporate art as a means of connectivity and expression.
Help Us On Our Mission
Click on the button below to join our volunteer team —you don't have to be artistic to be helpful! Or Donate to The Sierra Project to help with bringing more of these ideas to life.
Read below to gain an understanding of the unique challenges and needs in our art-based programs.
Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) can have a wide range of effects on a person’s cognitive and physical abilities, including their creativity and fine motor skills. If specific areas of the brain responsible for creativity, fine motor control, or cognitive processing are damaged, individuals may experience challenges in expressing themselves through artistic activities such as drawing, painting, or writing.
Creativity is a deeply personal and adaptable aspect of human expression, and finding unique ways to express oneself can lead to a renewed sense of purpose and self-discovery.
Paint It Forward
Volunteers have a variety of ways to contribute:
- assembling and sending the Welcome Art Kits
- curating participant artwork for other programs at Unmask the Invisible
- guiding participants through the submission process
This is Your Brain on Art Events
- assisting participants to navigate (like seeing if another tool works better, washing out a brush, getting a supply)
- teaching (if applicable) art sessions
- set-up and clean up
- encouragement and support
Because Of Our Partners We Are Doing More Good For More People!
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