On Friday, an art display named “Fragments to Wholeness” opened at the Bountiful Davis Arts Center, shining a light on one of the most traumatic events young people can face. The exhibition showcases glass art works from 11 teen survivors of sexual abuse and sexual assault.

“The Fragments to Wholeness art show is the culminating event in a glass art therapy group where teens transformed broken glass into stunning art pieces,” a press release on the show states. “This expressive art therapy group was designed to highlight how something as fragile as glass can be molded into new forms. During this class, students learned about glass – its potential to break, cut, shatter, and cause pain as well as its beauty, transparency, and ability to be reshaped.”

The display was made possible by Grandview for Good with donations from the nonprofit No More Victims that made it possible to offer the class free of charge.

Holly Willard, owner of Grandview Family Counseling and clinical director of Grandview for Good, told the Standard-Examiner that she has seen firsthand how a broad range of therapies can help young people.

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“At Grandview Family Counseling, I’m a registered play therapist supervisor, and we’ve used expressive arts and play to help with trauma,” she said. ‘It’s research-based and also is a much softer way for children, especially, and teens to talk about and process what’s happened to them.”

She said a meeting with a local glass artist helped bring about the idea for the arts show.

“I had met a glass artist named Sarinda Jones, and she has a lot of experience doing groups with survivors and groups with teenagers and talking how the arts are healing in themselves,” Willard said. “We came up with the idea of ‘Fragments to Wholeness.’ We would have a group with adolescents who had experienced sexual trauma or sexual abuse and Sarinda would come in and teach different glass techniques and they would create pieces together connected to what they had experienced.”

Jones, arts educator at Reflective Art Studio of Salt Lake City, told the Standard-Examiner that the seven-day course in therapy and glass-making helps people in ways that words sometimes can’t.

“Sometimes it’s hard to describe what you’re feeling in words,” she said. “Creating in color, texture, paint, what have you, you can work through those feelings with intuitive artistry.”

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She said helping these participants is part of the reason she got into arts education.

“Art is for everyone,” she said. “Art can touch and heal in so many ways. I became an arts educator for this very reason. We all need to create and express what’s in our mind’s eye. There’s been studies showing that individuals who are introduced to art at a younger age end up having a better handle on managing those feelings.”

Willard said the sessions go through a number of therapeutic lessons in addition to completing the glass work.

“As we’re doing the glass work, we’re talking about how it’s broken pieces — when you’re working with this glass, there’s different broken pieces that you’re using,” she said. “By putting the pieces together and creating the new normal or creating a new project, that’s what makes things beautiful. I wanted the participants to really understand that the trauma isn’t the beautiful part of it — the trauma that happened to them is horrendous and should never have happened to them. The part that makes it beautiful is that they got through that and they survived and who they became regardless of what happened to them.”

As part of the art show, several statements from the artists themselves will also be viewable to the general public.

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The following are statements from three of the artists, provided by Grandview for Good, that will be displayed alongside the artwork at the Bountiful Davis Art Center:

• “I feel like childhood wonder is something that has been lost in the world more and more. I know I have lost a lot of mine due to traumas in my life that have torn me to shreds. Family death, betrayal, anger, pain, sorrow. They are all as familiar to me as my breath. Coming to this class has helped me heal that inner child who is angry about the world. Who is hurt that someone she loves would scar her, then play victim. During this class I have had the opportunity to let her take control. My art is not mine, but a manifestation of what child me feels and sees in herself and the world. Before I went to the glass making class, I thought I was healed. Safe from the night and day demons that would haunt me. I didn’t know that I had just put a band-aid on a gun wound.”
• “I feel that my art work reflects my mind, all the messy parts and ones that aren’t. While I was going through traumatic events I felt as if that trauma took my creative mind away, or more so pushed it from the front of my mind to the back. I stopped creating and lost that passion that I had for it. My mind blocked out all of the good things. I tried to create more work with art but that passion felt like it was gone, but the more I healed that happiness for things I used to love slowly came back. The more I got more into it, the more my creativity expanded to all different kinds of things, but my art always shows a little part of my mind. Creating truly gave me my peace of mind back.”
• “For me, art is how I express myself most personally. I find it’s more fluid and natural to me, more similar to thoughts rather than having the physical barrier of talking. Sometimes, I get asked what my creative process is, and to that I say, “I have no idea,” because I can never find the words to say. I get images or envisionments in my head, which I struggle to put into words. My story and art journey began together. Art and drawing was my escape from the tough things I couldn’t cope otherwise with. I felt like I couldn’t share anything with anyone besides my sketchbook. I’ve tried many kinds of therapies, but none have felt as healing as this class. I don’t know how to talk and express myself without a creative medium, but combining therapy and art is what this class has done, and I can’t thank the people running this enough for what they’ve done for me.”

Willard said that she’s hopeful this won’t be the last art display for Grandview for Good.

“Our goal is to be able to provide (sessions) twice per year, if not more,” she said. “We are wanting to do one in the fall with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. We are looking for donations and grants and funding to be able to provide, and the Bountiful Arts Center is willing to let us use their space.”

She said there likely won’t be long-term exhibits for future sessions, but there will be private showings for future classes.

Willard said a display like this gives the opportunity for the survivors of sexual abuse to tell their stories in a way that is confidential and nonexploitative.

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“My hope through this art show … is that youth participants know that the community cares about them,” she said. “That what happened to them is not their fault and that there is also support and healing within the community.”

The display will be available to the public through July 3.

Those interested in donating to Grandview for Good expressive art therapy groups can visit https://givebutter.com/Z4oyBW.

For more of Jones’ work and info on Reflective Art Studio, visit http://www.sarindajones.com/.