George Eastman Museum Presents Photo Art Therapy: A Convergence of Creativity and the Healing Process

Visitors to the George Eastman Museum are invited to experience Photo Art Therapy: A Convergence of Creativity and the Healing Process, now on view through February 22, 2026, in the museum’s community gallery, Gallery Obscura. Presented in partnership with Nazareth University’s Graduate Art Therapy Program and Creative Art Therapy Clinic, the exhibition offers an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of art therapy and the broader mental health journey.

Art therapy is a form of psychotherapy that integrates traditional therapeutic techniques with visual creative processes to encourage participants to express feelings, explore experiences, and support emotional healing. Art therapy focuses on helping clients achieve their therapeutic goals and supports people of all ages in individual or group settings. Photo art therapy uses photography as its primary creative medium. Individuals may take, collect, or alter photographs to explore emotions, memories, or beliefs. Images can facilitate the expression of complex ideas—especially when words are hard to find.

Students, professors, and graduates of the Nazareth University Graduate Art Therapy Program collaborated on planning this exhibition and have created the works on display. Included with each work is a statement by the maker about the meaning behind the work and how it might be used in the art therapy process. 

Public Program
Photo Art Therapy Panel Discussion
Sunday, January 25, 2026 at 2 p.m.
Free to all; no advance tickets available or required.

2025 Gallery Obscura programming generously sponsored by ESL. With generous exhibition support provided by 7Crest Financial Partners.

About the Nazareth University Graduate Art Therapy Program and Creative Art Therapy Clinic 
Founded in the early 1990s, the Nazareth University Graduate Art Therapy Program offers a professional degree in art therapy, an undergraduate minor, and classes, as well as graduate training through the Creative Art Therapy Clinic at the York Wellness and Rehabilitation Institute on the Nazareth University Campus. The Nazareth University Creative Art Therapy Clinic serves thousands of community members annually. Graduate students in the Creative Arts Therapy Program provide art therapy services at the Clinic. Through their work, students learn to collaborate effectively, solve problems, and gain professional experience by applying clinical therapies in their work with their clients. All services are supervised by board-certified, licensed, and registered art therapists who are part of the Nazareth Faculty. To learn more about the program or the clinic’s services, visit naz.edu/york-wellness-rehabilitation-institute/clinic-care/art-therapy.

About the George Eastman Museum
Founded in 1947, the George Eastman Museum is the world’s oldest photography museum and one of the largest film archives in the United States, located on the historic Rochester estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography. Its holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs, 31,000 motion picture films, the world’s preeminent collection of photographic and cinematographic technology, one of the leading libraries of books related to photography and cinema, and extensive holdings of documents and other objects related to George Eastman. As a research and teaching institution, the Eastman Museum has an active publishing program, and its L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation’s graduate program (a collaboration with the University of Rochester) makes critical contributions to film preservation. The George Eastman Museum is supported with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. For more information, visit eastman.org.