Expressive Arts Healing, Session 2 (TF, 5 Sessions)
Adult Tuition-Free Class | Registration opens Tuesday, October 27, 2026 8:00 AM EDT
Rooted in person-centered expressive arts, mindfulness practices, and community-based approaches to well-being, shanina dionna's Expressive Arts Healing sessions invite participants into a creative process of reflection, connection, and self-discovery. Through meditation, breathwork, somatic awareness, creative expression, and guided dialogue, participants are encouraged to explore personal experiences in ways that honor both individual and collective wisdom. Grounded in the values of empathic understanding, congruence, and unconditional positive regard, these sessions offer space for curiosity, creativity, and authentic expression rather than artistic skill or performance.
Who Is This Class For:
This class is for true beginners and anyone seeking a fresh way of thinking. Questions about whether this class is right for you? Email adulteducation@fleisher.org.
- - Water (for drinking/hydration after "movement offerings")
- Journal (optional)
- Comfortable clothing to move around
- Floor cushion or yoga mat (optional)
Artmaking materials, these may include:
- Paint (acrylic)
- Air-Dry Clay
- Charcoal
- Newsprint Paper
- Mixed-media paper (small, medium, and/or large pads)
- Jumbo crayons and/or Jumbo Markers
- Magazines (for collage-making)
Shanina Dionna
shanina dionna, MA, ATR-P (she/they), is a West Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist, Provisional Registered Art Therapist, nonprofit arts educator, and certified Person-Centered Expressive Arts facilitator. Her community-engaged practice spans visual art, documentary filmmaking, somatic movement, and expressive arts, exploring identity, belonging, well-being, and culturally rooted approaches to collective care. Her work positions art as both creative expression and social medicine.
With over a decade of experience, her practice extends across museums, behavioral health, education, and civic spaces, with institutional engagements including the Barnes Foundation, Penn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS). She is the founder of ARTbuds Philly, a tuition-free youth arts initiative established in 2016, and Expressive Arts Healing, a tuition-free adult program piloted at Fleisher Art Memorial. Her artwork is permanently installed at The Colored Girls Museum, marking her first museum acquisition.
shanina is a recipient of the Leeway Foundation Transformation Award, Mural Arts Philadelphia Fellowship for Black Artists, and the inaugural Paul Robeson House & Museum artist residency. Her work is currently featured in A Nation of Artists at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, on view through summer 2027. She holds an MA in Art Therapy & Counseling from Drexel University and a bachelor's degree from Temple University.