Jennifer Way Publishes New Chapter on Art Therapy at MoMA and Joins Prestigious CAA Committee

Jennifer Way, Ph.D., professor of Art History, published a chapter titled “The Museum of Modern Art and Craft-Based Occupational Therapy” in Modernism, Art, Therapy (Yale University Press, 2024). This book presents a transnational history of modernist art, linking art-as-therapy discussions to issues of gender, disability, race, and care politics. Way’s chapter explores how MoMA, aligned with the artistic avant-garde, served as a therapeutic space during and after WWII. Here, craft-making benefited injured troops and veterans, guided by the American Occupational Therapy Association, the New York Council of Museums’ Subcommittee on Occupational Therapy, and MoMA’s prior efforts to merge modern design with craft. In the postwar period, MoMA reintroduced craft in a “how-to-make” book series for middle-class hobbyists and through the American Craftsmen’s Cooperation Council, which shifted craft’s role from therapy to teaching in the School of American Craftsmen.

Appointment to CAA Committee

Way has also been appointed to the College Art Association’s Services to Historians of Visual Arts Committee, one of its Professional Committees. This committee identifies and addresses challenges facing art historians across diverse fields, including architecture, design, material culture, and visual culture. It develops and implements programs and events, both at the CAA conference and throughout the year, fostering a forum for discussing issues of shared interest. In a time of significant threat to art and visual arts history programs, this committee plays a vital role in advocacy for the field. Dr. Way previously served on CAA’s Council of Readers for annual conference proposals (2021-2023) and as a jury member for the Distinguished Teaching of Art History Award (2018-2020).

About Dr. Way

Way’s research explores overlooked intersections of art history, craft, and art as they relate to war, diplomacy, care, healing, humanitarianism, disability, and gender and race. Her current projects investigate craft’s therapeutic applications in the context of 20th and 21st-century wars. Her teaching spans 20th and 21st-century art, with courses such as Art and Healing, Caring, and Craft and Conflict, which emphasize the social meanings and uses of art, craft, and exhibitions. These courses, along with her Methodologies of Art History class, focus on interdisciplinary frameworks and primary source-based student learning.