Tricia Stewart recalls attending the Veterans Creative Arts Festival held in Lake County last year when a veteran read prose on stage about his suicide attempt.
“That was a really powerful experience,” Stewart said.
She is encouraging veterans and the general public to attend this year’s festival March 10 at the College of Lake County, where dramatic and musical presentations will be performed, and art work including ceramics and photography will be displayed.
Stewart is an art therapist at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, which is organizing the event. VA hospitals are participating nationwide, with a national festival scheduled Oct. 10-17 in Jackson, Miss.
“It’s a wonderful way to educate the community on what our veterans are dealing with every day,” Stewart said, adding last year’s Lake County event included a veteran who rapped about post-traumatic stress disorder and a drama about veterans and homelessness.
“In the category of military combat experience, there were actual photos from Vietnam and they depicted other soldiers and how they died, and the children and the people of Vietnam. They were amazing photos,” she said.
“What a person is going to find or see at the creative arts festival is exactly what people are hearing about every day about what veterans go through – PTSD, depression, mental illness, addiction and loss,” she said.
All veterans who are receiving services from the VA are eligible to participate in categories including music, art, drama and poetry, she said.
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Professional judges award ribbons, and entries are submitted to the national competition, she said. Last year, four Lake County entrants won medals, she said.
“The festival is so important because, we want to encourage our veterans to be as creative as possible,” Stewart said. “And the festival is a really great way for them to meet other veterans and network with each other. It provides inspiration and a connection with other veterans who may not know how to be creative like they are.”
Stewart said veterans deal with PTSD and other issues in myriad ways, and various arts therapies can help.
“Talk therapy doesn’t work with everyone, and so a lot of times these creative avenues – such as arts, writing, music, drama, dance – might be the only things that reach the veterans therapeutically to help them heal,” she said.
“What I hear from a lot of people is that they’re able to focus on the art process and everything else that’s going on kind of goes away and quiets down and it helps balance them.”
Veterans have been submitting their work and rehearsing musical, dance and dramatic performances to prepare for the festival, she said.
She’s seen veterans’ works including ceramics, pencil drawings and paintings. One artist has drawn inspiring figures including Mother Teresa and Gandhi, she said.
Inspiring nature photography is also being submitted, and one veteran is making leather sheaves for knives, while another is doing cross stitch work, she said.
Last year, the event was held at the Lovell Center in North Chicago, but this year, it’s being held at the College of Lake County.
“We wanted an auditorium for our veterans and we wanted a better sound system, and so we were able to partner with CLC. It’s been so great,” Stewart said.
“It’s going to be a wonderful day to celebrate our veterans and their creativity.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
Veterans Creative Arts Festival
When: 1 to 3 p.m., March 10
Where: C Wing Conference Center and Auditorium, College of Lake County, 19351 W. Washington St., Grayslake
Tickets: Free and open to the public
Information: 224-610-3132