A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

On This Page

Leah Ra'Chel Gipson

Associate Professor

Contact

Bio

Associate Professor (2016 - ), SAIC Department of Art Therapy and Counseling Department. Program Director (2018 - 2021), Chair (2022-2023). Education: BFA, 2007, University of Central Florida; MAAT, 2010, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; MTS, 2018, McCormick Theological Seminary.

Publications: Gipson, L. (Forthcoming). Georgette Seabrooke Powell and the legacy of Harlem in art therapy. In T. Sheehan & S. Hudson (Eds.), Modernism, Art, Therapy. Yale University Press. 
Reinhardt, R., & Gipson, L. (2023). Against diagnosing the spirit: A Note on the Clinic of Spirit Possession. Penumbr(a) A Journal of Psychoanalysis and Modernity. 
Norris, M., Williams, B. Leah Gipson (Ed.). (2021). Black aesthetics and the arts therapies. Special Multidisciplinary Issue. Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy, 21(1). https://voices.no/index.php/voices/issue/view/422. 
Gipson, L. (2019). Envisioning black women’s consciousness in art therapy. In S.K. Talwar (Ed.), (2019). Art therapy for social justice: Radical intersections. Routledge.

Awards & Recognition: (2018 - 2020) Visiting Professor, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; (2016) Propeller Fund Awardee; (2014-2017) Community Engagement Fellow McCormick Theological Seminary; (2014) DCASE Chicago Artists Month Featured Artist. Exhibitions, Art Facilitation, & Press: Participatory Arts: Crafting Social Change at Hull-House Museum, Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago, IL; "The Artist as a Catalyst of Social Change?" Part 3: Leah Gipson, Sixty Inches from Center; "West Side Artists Talk Gentrification," Austin Weekly News, Tuesday, December 5, 2017; In Progress: Leah Gipson, Tuesday, November 14, 2017, MCA, Chicago, IL; Barbershop Talk: Black Eutopia, at Carter's Barbershop, Chicago, IL, October 18, 2014.

Courses: Cultural Dimensions in Art Therapy; Historical and Theoretical Perspectives in Art Therapy and Counseling; Psychoanalytic and Anthropological Perspectives on Art and Childhood. Black Rage: Interpreting Feeling in Anti-Slavery Imagery; Materials and Media in Art Therapy; Researching Art and Change on the West Side of Chicago; Explorations in Community-Based Art Practices; Community Practice and Helping Relationships (formerly Creative Healing Praxis and Blackness); Art Therapy Fieldwork; Ethics and Legal Issues in Art Therapy.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This course explores the intersections between psychoanalysis, anthropology, art and childhood, emphasizing common ideas, concepts, techniques and methods across disciplines. The course consists of both theoretical and practical elements. Historical and contemporary ideas on art and human development are explored from multiple theoretical perspectives and interpretations of childhood. In the realm of the practical, students develop and implement collaborative art and ethnography projects guided by shared inquiries, and in opposition to dominant, totalizing narratives.

Class Number

1110

Credits

3

Description

This multi-level course draws from arts and counseling perspectives to critically examine helping relationships, community care work, socially engaged art practice, cultural curation, and research through service learning. Students will learn various models of collaboration with community members and an interdisciplinary team of mental health practitioners, artists, designers, organizers, educators, scholars and researchers. In addition to weekly classroom lectures and discussions, students are expected to participate in community engagement outside of regular scheduled classes. Regular off campus meetings, planning, and experiential research are required.

Class Number

2336

Credits

3