“Her passion for helping other patients, even though she was going through a tough time, really inspired me,” said Casey. “We want to give children dealing with serious illnesses the opportunity to smile and have fun, and to create a happier atmosphere for them.”
Casey launched the Lilli Project in early November as a service project for the Penn State student chapter of the Pennsylvania Art Education Association (PAEA), of which she is president. On Nov. 18 and 20 at the HUB-Robeson Center, the PAEA chapter will be selling lilies for $1, with the opportunity to write a note for a young patient that Casey will distribute when she drops off art supplies. There will be boxes available for art supply donations.
Casey, who plans to pursue a career as an art therapist, discovered herself how therapeutic art can be while she was in high school and began to create two-dimensional portraits of celebrities using cassette tape ribbon. (She has sold several of those portraits to Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum). “That is where my love for art started. When I realized how therapeutic art was for me, I became extremely interested in how art can help others as well.”
Casey has already applied for and received funding for research on how creating art can help members of the military, which she conducted at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. “I got to interview the head creative arts therapist as well as go into patients’ rooms and create art with them,” Casey said. She is now publishing her research in order to raise awareness of art therapy.
“I believe that art is such a powerful asset when it comes to healing,” said Casey, who has observed how art has helped her sister Hanna deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression. “I see daily how art and doing her makeup helps her through her troubles. It’s another reason for my passion for art therapy,” she explained, noting she has worked on art projects with her sister for specific therapeutic reasons, where they examined her stressors and what helps her deal with them.