Nourishing the Soul with Water
Karen Glosser is a fine-art nature photographer who finds inspiration throughout her native Western New York. As a child growing up in Jamestown, she loved the outdoors and spent her days exploring a ...
The Healing Space of BLOOM Collaborative in Erie, PA
Create Heal Grow Blossom
Fifteen years ago, Lee Steadman came to Stairways Behavioral Health in Erie, PA, through a grant for an artist in residence. Stairways, a comprehensive mental healthcare provider, serves more than 10,000 people a year, through programs including adult treatment and rehabilitation, child and adolescent programming, and housing and vocational support.
But before there were organizations and support systems in place, those with serious mental illness were treated in institutions, often far away from family. As treatments and medications advanced, patients could return home, but many found it challenging and lacked the skills necessary to return to their communities. To assist this transition, the Erie Chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women launched Stairways in 1961. Located above a storefront, the program began to be referred to as “Stairways,” not only for the stairs clients had to climb, but also for the more metaphorical image of a path to a better life.
To this day, Stairways is committed to fostering an environment that makes recovery from mental illness a reality, led by the belief that everyone deserves the opportunity for a quality life.
When Steadman, a full-time painter and rostered artist with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, arrived at Stairways, he began painting murals with 12 Stairways clients. Clearly impactful, the residency turned into a part-time position, which led to grant writing and converting the Koehler Curtze Mansion in Erie, PA, into BLOOM Collaborative, a community healing arts center focused on improving the mental health of its participants through the arts.
Today, as director of BLOOM, Steadman oversees a creative wellness campus that serves 2,400 students a year, from both the community and Stairways. The belief that creative expression is healing and transformative guides Steadman and his small team, who have created an environment focused on well-being. The five-acre campus is an urban oasis with historic structures transformed into welcoming spaces: an art studio in a renovated hayloft, a clay studio in a former Koehler Brewing Company keg storage building, rose gardens, fruit trees and a field of wildflowers. Those who take classes are encouraged to pick a bouquet of wildflowers to take home with them.
The art studio is home to a variety of classes—from painting to jewelry to art journaling to fused glass. A library of art books from Steadman’s own studio educates and inspires; hot coffee and music welcomes; and full-spectrum lighting provides light therapy. The state-of-the-art BLOSSOM’s Clay Studio offers workshops and wheel and hand-building classes. Classes are open to the public, with fees aimed toward making them accessible to everyone.
BLOOM takes pride in improving mental health through the arts, designing and hosting creative healing and team building programs for local organizations and non-profits, including the VA Medical Center, Regional Cancer Center, at-risk youth and local businesses. People from all walks of life are in need of a place to grow, heal and recover and the programs allow participants to be creative and discuss things they may not talk about at work.
“We like to be a resource for a lot of people,” Steadman explains. “Everybody has mental health just like everybody’s got physical health and nobody really wants to talk about it. If we can make people happier, why not?”
Steadman knows art can offer that. And sometimes, it does much more.
“We do a free fruit giveaway every week and try to get folks hooked on fruit,” he adds. “We’re in a food desert, so we give apples and oranges away every week. One day, a woman, Terry, came in, sat down in the front lobby, and said, ‘I’m homeless. I have nothing to eat. And if I have to live on the street this weekend, I’m going to kill myself.’
“So, I gave her all my fruit—two big bags of fruit. I said, ‘Let’s call the folks at Stairways and see if we can get you a place to stay this weekend.’ We did, but my only deal was that she had to come back for an art class.”
According to Terry, BLOOM (and art) did more than heal, “Truthfully, it saved my life.”
Steadman says that “Terry makes beautiful pottery. She’s always smiling and dancing around the studio. She’s one of our prize students and she’s so happy when someone buys one of her pieces of work.”
Photo 1: Renovated hayloft art studio at BLOOM
Photo 2: Sarah Hartmans, operations manager in the art studio
BLOSSOM’s Clay Studio hosts an annual holiday market, which began as a way for Stairways clients to make gifts for loved ones and to earn a little money for the holidays. The market has resulted in more than $200,000 in art sold, with 50 percent of each sale going directly back to the artist, further contributing to a sense of health and well-being.
BLOOM’s newest community offering, Clay With Us!, provides one month of free classes to anyone who has just moved to the area or recently retired, or those who have lost a loved one. Clay is an inviting and forgiving medium that can help students heal, grow and connect with others. The class offers these opportunities to those who might benefit from meeting new people, moving forward in some small way, or finding a new hobby.
Passionately irreverent, BLOOM tries not to take itself too seriously and encourages its artists to play and smile. During the course of that play, they may forget their issues or problems and have a better day, which may lead to a better week, month or year.
Steadman offers a lesson we all can learn from, “We talk a lot about the courage to be imperfect. Everybody wants to be perfect. You can’t be perfect and be creative because you’re going to make mistakes all the time. Having the sort of courage to make a mistake and live with it—because hey, it’s got a flaw, no big deal—can help you have a better day. As opposed to not doing anything, because it won’t be perfect.
“For the most part we don’t talk about the past or problems here,” he summarizes. “We talk about the future and what you’re doing right here, right now. If you’re making something, it’s hard to think about your problems. You’re right here. And that’s a good gift.”
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