An Arts in Health Collaboration with RAF Mildenhall's Resiliency Office

A summer spent creating art with the military community gave me the chance to engage with a wide variety of people in the community. There were three aspects to the program: Gear Up, a creativity session for newly arrived Airmen; Airmen Art Attack, an open studio for the adult military community; and Kids Art Attack, a parallel program for military kids. Over about eleven weeks I logged workshops, festivals, and studio visits, and along the way I learned as much about the people I was working with as they did about creating art.

Meeting Airmen Where They Are

Gear Up became one of the most rewarding pieces of the summer program. New Airmen arrive at Mildenhall in cohorts of twelve to fourteen, often disoriented by a new duty station and, for many, a new country. I got an hour with each group to talk about why creativity matters for health and resiliency, then ran an activity using a creature-drawing prompt deck to get them out of their comfort zones. It didn't take much: within minutes, people who'd walked in guarded were laughing, comparing monsters, and talking about jobs and hometowns like they'd known each other for weeks.

Open Studio, Open Doors

Airmen Art Attack was my open studio for the broader military community: needle felting, acrylic painting, collage, watercolor, whatever I could put in front of people who wanted to drop in on a lunch break or stay the whole session. Attendance was small at first, sometimes just one person, but that turned out to be its own kind of gift. One regular participant, working alone on a needle felting project, told me every time how much better she felt after our sessions. That kind of quiet, repeated feedback meant more to me than a packed room would have.

A few interactions stayed with me. A young Airman came to an acrylic painting class, and it turned out he was a serious pianist — there happened to be a piano in the room, and he played for a while before joining the group at the easels. We talked about how different art forms serve the same purpose. Conversations like that are a big part of why I chose this field.

Kids Art Attack

For the kids' program, I kept the same creative focus but adjusted the projects: acrylic painting, paper "gratefulness cakes" complete with aprons and chef hats, Agamograph pictures, and world-building games. One small moment stands out: a boy struggling to keep the sections of his Agamograph straight in his head kept starting over, and finally got it. Watching him realize he'd done it, and telling him how proud I was of his persistence, is exactly the kind of interaction I hope to keep having in this work.

The single biggest event of the summer was the Base Summer Carnival in June. With one friend helping me, I ran an outdoor art table for eight hours and served somewhere around 75 children, many of whom made their own sock puppets from googly eyes, yarn, and a pile of plastic gems. It was chaotic in the best way.

What I'm Taking Forward

The feedback that meant the most came from a program survey my Gear Up participants filled out. They told me that being reminded to use art as a way to de-stress genuinely helped, and that the group interaction mattered to them as much as the art itself. They also said they'd be more likely to pursue creative outlets if their leadership visibly supported it, which tells me where some of my future advocacy needs to go: not just to the Airmen themselves, but to the people they report to.