entertainment + activities Culture
THE HEALING ARTS
Wellness Through Music and Art By Jan Craddock
For centuries music and art have played an important role in the healing practices of many cultures. The therapeutic benefits of these pleasures, which most of us unconsciously understand and appreciate, are taking their place in the forefront of preventative medicine and wellness in the form of art and music therapy. Music therapy is defined as the use of music for the restoration, maintenance and improvement of one’s mental and physical health. The sounds and harmonics of musical instruments, someone’s voice or a group of people singing, chanting and storytelling, and the pattern these sounds make when they are performed, have been found to soothe and center your energy. Melody Baratone-Helmeck (melodybaratone.com), a local music therapist, explains that one of the basic theories goes back to biblical times with the use of the Solfeggio frequencies 28
WELLNESS
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(luminanti.com/tfsolfeggio.html). They’re based in numerology and each one relates back to one of the seven chakras. Using tuning forks, notes are struck and used to tune the energy in your body, bringing your body’s nervous system, muscle tone and organs into harmonic balance. Other favorite forms of music therapy include Tibetan singing bowls and drum circles. You can enjoy both of these activities locally at either the Ganesha Center (ganeshacenter.com) on the east side of town or the Stillpoint Center for Spiritual Development (stillpointcsd.org) on the west side. Art therapy works in a similar way, using light, colors and reflection to stimulate, calm down or create a sense of happiness. You can enjoy the benefit whether you’re viewing art or creating it. (Finger painting anyone?) The enjoyment of art is playful, tactile and revealing, allowing you to let go and be in control, which is an
experience that is comforting in times of hardship or illness. Fortunately, today there are many places where you can enjoy art for therapy: the city of Las Vegas, Clark County and the city of Henderson all have public art that is free. The urban branches of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District have art galleries with rotating exhibits available to enjoy for free during regular branch hours. Downtown Las Vegas offers numerous art galleries in which to find inspiration, and the University of Las Vegas is home to the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery and the reopened Las Vegas Art Museum. For a comprehensive directory of where to find all types of visual, performance and musical arts, go to artsvegas.com.
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