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Amanda and her work has been featured in The Red Pencil Annual Report 2019. For the full report, visit  2019 Annual Report . The Red Pencil (Singapore)  is a charity which provides art therapy to children in need, especially those from low-income families. Our founder and art therapist Amanda Chen is also an art therapist with The Red Pencil (Singapore) and has been featured in their  2019 Annual Report . Since 2011, The Red Pencil (Singapore) team has been devoted to bring the benefits of arts therapy to many beneficiaries, working with partner organisations and the local art therapists’ community to achieve its objectives and mission and to raise awareness of arts therapy. The red pencil participated in the Encounter Humanitarian Forum and Fair on the 1st of June 2019 at Catholic Junior College, Singapore. This event allow Red Pencil to meet other humanitarian organisations and interact with visitors who were interested in learning more about the organization and/or volunteering. Founder and Managing Director, Mrs Laurence Vandenborre had the privilege to speak at the STEP Asian Undergraduate Summit 2019, a student-run international program organised by the University Scholars Programme (USP) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) last 17th July 2019. In the small group sharing segment called Human Library, Mrs Vandenborre gave an inspirational talk on the life-changing benefits of creative arts therapy and how The Red Pencil ensures the sustainability of its work with its service users. During the Q&A, the students were very engaged and has a wonderful interactive session with the speaker. Amanda Chen , our founder and art therapist, participated as an Art Therapist with Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series Mozart 36 for the Music and Art Therapy program for children with special needs. Amanda Chen was the Art Therapist for this project which speaks on how Art Therapy has helped a child regain confidence.

Art Therapy You may have heard of the term “art therapy” and wondered what it meant? Or perhaps watched a movie or television show where you saw therapists encouraging a child to express his or her emotions by drawing. How does it work? And does it work? Certified art therapist Amanda Chen shares her insights with us.” Art Therapy is a human service profession that uses art media, images, art processes and client responses to the created products, as reflections of development, abilities, personality, interests, concerns & conflicts. The art therapy practice is based on human developmental and psychological theories for assessment and treatment, which include educational psychodynamic, cognitive and other therapeutic means of reconciling emotional conflicts, fostering self-awareness, developing social skills, managing behaviour, solving problems, reducing anxiety, aiding reality orientation and increasing self-expression to explore problems using a range of art materials, enabling positive change and personal growth. The intention is not a focus on the artistic skills but in engaging in a creative personal process. As art therapy encourages self-expression towards self-explorations through art, this encourages positive change and personal growth. The intention is not a focus on the artistic skills but the creative personal process. Through the process, the clients can become more aware of where they are at and learn to take care of their mental health and state. Art therapy also promotes self care, where you are taking the time to look inwardly at yourself and focus on you. Art therapy usually comprises of visual arts. Arts (with an ‘s’) Therapy covers more areas to include movement, dance and music within the treatment and practice. For very specialised therapies, you have music therapy, expressive arts therapy and play therapy. Most importantly, an art therapist would be needed in an art therapy session, because without the therapist it would simply just be art making. The therapist helps the client to process and make sense of the artwork and the emotions derived from the art making process and the art work. The treatment is usually built on the therapeutic relationship and alliance that is build over the art therapy sessions. Art materials supporting the art therapy session, would be in the disciplines that the art therapist is familiar with. The basic art materials to start with would be pencils and paper. More rt materials provided can allow the client to become more expressive in their art. The art materials will vary from client to client, dependent on the interventions and desired outcomes for the client. How does art therapy help? Pearl, aged eight, a quiet shy girl with low confidence, was not good at expressing herself with words and is socially awkward. She comes from a low-income family, where the brother was more favoured as he was a male child in a traditional Chinese family. After having gone through 12 sessions of art therapy, she was empowered through her expression through art, where she managed to find a voice. She began to find her sense of self, increase her confidence and come to terms with her difficult emotions. She became more vocal and now expresses herself better. She even started to join in for events and activities at the centre, made new friends and volunteered to join in a dance performance. Meanwhile, Adeline aged 13, started acting out when she went into Secondary One. She was lying, playing truant and was even caught stealing. Her mother wanted to send her to a girls’ home as her behaviour seemed to be getting out of hand. Fortunately, through art therapy sessions, she managed to build confidence in herself, find a surer footing and we all began to see her behaviour starting to improve. She needed to get settled in to the many transitions that were taking place in her life, especially at home and at her new school, where she really needed a space to properly manage her emotions. Art therapy provided her with a safe space to explore these difficult emotions and express herself through her art and words. Amanda Chen Founder – Art Therapist Amanda is a certified and experienced Art Therapist (MA-AT 2015 Masters in Art Therapy) and Arts Educator (Registered with MOE-AMIS). She is active and current in the social work scene for the past decade and has worked for many charities and social enterprises like Red Pencil, Children’s Wishing Well, Center Pottery, Habitat for Humanity Singapore and was the Former Deputy Director of Social Creatives. She currently sits on the board as Honorary Secretary of the Rare Disorders Society of Singapore. Amanda is currently an Art Therapist with the Red Pencil and manages all the projects and programs under Art for Good. Art For Good is a social enterprise which creates good through art. We help communities through art therapy, art enrichment and community art projects. Our beneficiaries are vulnerable children, those in poverty, with special needs, suffer from rare disorders & emotional / behavioural problems. Art For Good is based on a simple philosophy of using art to do good. We focus on three different levels of which we use art for good, namely Art Therapy (healing), Art Enrichment (learning) & Community Art Projects (giving). OVER-THE-RAINBOW’S WEBSITE : HTTP://OVERTHERAINBOW.SG/ OVER-THE-RAINBOW’S FACEBOOK PAGE : HTTPS://M.FACEBOOK.COM/OVERTHERAINBOW.SG/

ARTS FOR GOOD PROGRAM BY SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION  30 artists from over 10 nationalities convene in Chennai for the Arts For Good forum held by Singapore International Foundation. Arts educators, practitioners and programmers exchanged ideas and shared best practices to create positive social change through art at the Arts for Good Forum. Chennai, 22 February 2019 –  The Arts for Good Forum, an international collaboration between the Singapore International Foundation and NalandaWay Foundation, was held in Chennai today at the Stella Maris College. The forum brought together a dynamic group of educators, arts practitioners and programmers. Individuals working with the arts and youth exchanged ideas and shared best practices to create positive social change in diverse communities. An engaging panel discussion was conducted on the topic ‘Empowering Youth through the Arts’ to an audience of nearly 100 members of the public. The panel was moderated by Sriram Ayer, SIF Arts for Good (Fellow) and CEO & Founder of the award-winning NGO, Nalandaway Foundation.  He shared, “In a world that is increasingly threatened by growing nationalism, it is imperative for artists to play the role of peacemakers, connectors and negotiators. The Singapore International Foundation’s efforts to bring together a diverse group of practitioners, programmers, educators, researchers, and policymakers through the Arts for Good Fellowship programme is helping to build an ‘Arts for Good’ ecosystem that is much needed at present.” The forum marks the end of the four-day Chennai Exchange Programme of the  Arts for Good Fellowship  organised by the SIF. Over the four days, 30 SIF Arts for Good fellows from 10 nationalities only gained insights into the arts for good scene in Chennai and but also carried out several arts-based collaborative projects. One of these projects saw SIF Arts for Good Fellows from Singapore, India, and UK collaborate to create a mural in a high school in Thiruvanmiyur. They co-created the mural with over 100 students from the high school. Portraying dreams, hope, faith, and creativity, the mural was completed over two days. Another collaborative project was the infusion of a Tamil folk song with Malay dance movements for the students of a weekly Art Lab lessons conducted by the NalandaWay Foundation. Singaporean Muhammad Noramin Bin Mohamed Farid, SIF Arts for Good Fellow and Joint Artistic Director, Bhumi Collective led this effort with music educator Manjula Ponnapalli. He shared, “From my collaborative experience here in Chennai, especially as an artist working with communities which is not my own, I still found openness amongst the students to take in what we were trying to communicate and learn alongside us. This is proof that there is possibility for intercultural exchange through artistic means. Although this is a very small example, this is something which can be replicated can be seen in other ways, through other artistic exchange and collaborations.” Amanda Chen , Art Therapist from Art for Good, was proud to be one of the fellows who joined the Arts for Good Program by Singapore International Foundation 18-22 February 2019.

The Red Pencil (Singapore)  is a charity which provides art therapy to children in need, especially those from low-income families. Our founder and art therapist Amanda Chen is also an art therapist with The Red Pencil (Singapore) and has been featured in their  2018 Annual Report . An abstraction of the report as below. Since 2011, The Red Pencil (Singapore) team has been devoted to bring the benefits of arts therapy to many beneficiaries, working with partner organisations and the local art therapists’ community to achieve its objectives and mission and to raise awareness of arts therapy. The Red Pencil (Singapore) collaborated with talented musicians of the Tang Tee Khoon Grand Series on two private art and music workshops: one in May for children recovering from cancer and another in November for children with special needs and children from underprivileged backgrounds, held at the National Gallery Singapore and the Esplanade respectively. On both occasions, the children created artworks in response to the beautiful tunes performed by the musicians. The Red Pencil sponsored the art materials used in these private workshops and coordinated the presence of an art therapist as well as art therapy student volunteers from the LASALLE College of the Arts. We would like to thank all the art therapists who have worked with us for their dedication and commitment to our service users. We asked two of them to share their insights on the art therapy profession. Here is what they have to say: Healing is a process that continues beyond the art therapy session. The misconception of art therapy is that after the sessions, the client is expected to be all better or completely healed. Some improvements in the mood and behaviour are part of the healing process, but the journey of healing is often a long one. Amanda Chen on some of the common misconceptions that people often have about art therapy