The project is being implemented in cooperation with cultural venues in Moscow and is an initiative of the Silver Thread Foundation to create an inclusive museum environment for children with disabilities.

Thanks to a specially designed program based on the combination of the principles of intermodal art therapy and music therapy, children with special needs get access to the museum space in an adapted format.

In April-May 2022, the foundation held a series of events together with the Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin. For children from the wards of correctional institutions, special formats of classes were developed for immersion in the museum environment.

The approach to introducing children to works of art is based on the principle of a polymodal (complex) perception of art - visual, auditory, tactile, plastic. So, for example, in MMOMA, children pushed the boundaries of perception: they listened to and voiced colors and shapes, and then, based on the author's work, created their own picture from plasticine. It is worth noting that such creativity is not only a therapeutic process, but also material for the further work of a psychologist.

In the Museum of A.S. Pushkin, we combined music therapy with fairy tale therapy - children plunged into the magical world of Pushkin's fairy tales accompanied by classical music, reincarnated as fairy tale characters in a theatrical performance to the music, guessed the plots of fairy tales by sound images.

Intermodal therapy with expressive arts or expressive arts therapy is a young passionate art therapy direction that arose in the 70s of the last century in the USA and Europe.

A distinctive feature of the direction is an interdisciplinary approach, which uses not one, but several types of art at once, such as music, drawing, painting, sculpture, theatrical art, dance, literary creativity, etc.

Intermodal therapy today is a rapidly developing area with its publications, international conferences and the international Association.

The specialists of our foundation see great potential in the use of intermodal arts therapy in working with children with disabilities.

First, the combination of different arts helps the therapist find the right language to communicate with a child who may find it difficult or impossible to express himself verbally.

Secondly, according to this method, everything expressed using the language of various arts can be a phenomenon that came from the emotional depths of the individual. The combination of arts allows the child to open his subconscious, work out deep emotions in the most suitable way for him.

The use of intermodal means in art therapy ensures the reorientation of class participants from the usual forms of thinking to alternative ones related to creativity. The practice of expressive arts returns contact with your body, with the world of imagination, with the reality of the forces of nature around us.

We actively apply the ideas and techniques of intermodal arts therapy in our classes with children.

The use of music therapy as a base and other arts (painting, modeling, dance, etc.) as a “superstructure” opens up great opportunities for successful therapy, the goal of which is to “discover, express and let go”, because “The soul loves to speak in the language of the arts” (Daria Halprin, Living Artfully, 1998).

The intermodal approach is also embodied in the Sphere of Opportunities Foundation program. In the EcoBody classes, we practice the harmonization of the physical body and soul, teach children to listen and hear their body, like music. Art Yoga, which incorporates elements of yoga, acting, dance and music, reveals the inner resources of children and releases their creative potential.

Thanks to the foundation’s cooperation with cultural venues in Moscow and the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, we gain invaluable experience in the field of expressive arts therapy, combining with the foundation’s activities to promote effective therapy and rehabilitation technologies for children, for whom they can significantly improve the quality of life, as well as contribute to the process of social adaptation.