Theater

“Self-nurturing and healing through the arts.” That’s how Elizabeth Tobias, a trauma-informed therapist, community advocate, and multi-media artist describes her work. She creates change, through immersive arts therapy programs that have assisted both individuals and groups, offering profound assistance in dealing with and overcoming depression, anxiety, trauma, assault, and PTSD. She also provides relationship therapy. And, she performs works of art at public events that address timely social issues. Her purpose is always about creating positive change: with her performances, she’s engaged in creating awareness in the community about a wide range of issues.

Tobias says “Expressive arts therapy aligns so well with what I do as a perfromance artist …it’s about the process, not the product. We are on a journey together…whatever the theme may be…not knowing what the outcome will be, and just trying something different, taking risks in order to try to create change.”

As both artist and therapist, Tobias has always been a risk-taker. With an MA in Spiritual Psychology from The University of Santa Monica and a Professional Diploma from The Expressive Arts Institute in San Diego, she’s prepared herself to combine her artistic discipline and achievements with game-changing performances and installations that confront some of the most serious issues of contemporary life.

From elementary to high school groups, to The San Diego Unified School District Department of Student Advocacy, The LA Gay and Lesbian Center, Girl Up, and Lifting Generations, to The Expressive Arts Foundation, Tobias has opened hearts and minds, assisted with mental health issues, addressed and offered relief from traumas. And running like a thread throughout her career is her unique ability as artist and advocate to address cultural and societal issues that impact a broader audience as well as affecting smaller groups and individuals.

In 2011, she addressed food scarcity with her Let Them Eat Cupcakes, exploring hunger in LA. She traveled throughout the city setting up home-made cupcake pop-up shops from Skid Row to Beverly Hills, exchanging cupcakes for stories about hunger and homelessness. The culmination of this program was partcipation in a group show at Chapman University. In the group show, her pop-up became installation art, an ersatz colorful cupcake party housed in a yellow emergency tent. She earned a Durfee Grant for this exhibition on the hunger epidemic in 2012, traveling the project nationwide to destinations including Harvard College. In 2014, she received a Learning Innovation Fellowship from the National Science Foundation for a collaborative project on climate change.

Now, in 2019, the LA Art Association selected her to develop a presentation for The LA Art Show. Her performance will touch on another pressing and prescient issue: sexual assault. With Survivor! Share Your 98 Second Story, she’s working with a collective of 24 artists.

Calling her work experimental as well as experiential, Tobias says “I work to engage audiences with me in a process that helps to bring awareness to very sensitive issues …I take these issues very seriously, whether I am working in a private or public venue.”

Survivor! is a strong continuation of her multifacted approach to art and therapeutic transformation. Tobias, whose advocacy on this subject has recieved commendation from Sen. Kamala Harris, will use a combination of live performance, audio, and her unique social practice to create a fully immersive project for viewers. Choreography for the performance was assisted by the Ooh La La dance company. The project also includes support from Los Angeles Art Association/Gallery 825, Shoebox PR, Kristine Schomaker, Peter Mays, Micol Hebron, Dawniel Carlock, Stewart Naomi, Tara Judith, Greer Essex, Wes Chester, Expressive Arts Institute, Tara Graviss, Anna Cirronis, Felís Stella, Joi Cole, Robyn Alatorre, Dee Weingarden, Kayla Cloonan, Natalie Brewster Nguyen, Seven McDonald, Janet and Jennifer Danica Teyssier, Lifting Generations, and the many more.

Sexual assault is an epidemic in this nation, yet it is often under-reported. The #MeToo movement has barely scratched the surface. Survivor! will illuminate the overwhelming and brutal fact that every 98 seconds there’s a sexual assault occuring in the U.S. The hash tags that Tobias is using in regard to the piece are to the point: #WeInsistOnProgress#ThisIsHowWeEndSexualViolence. Spoken word and improvised sound form the delivery system for Tobias’ performance along with an ensemble of artist survivors. They’ll speak to the need to raise awareness and advocacy for sexual assault survivors throughout the public – and specifically in the art community as well. 

Part of Tobias’ advocacy with this project is devoted to addressing the need for support and resources in general terms; within the arts community, she is looking toward the expression of survivor stories within it and beyond it, for those who’ve experienced or been impacted by sexual assault.

In both her upcoming performance at The LA Art Show and moving forward with this project from there, Tobias aims to not only destigmatize what survivors have experienced, but to decrease the potential for future assault.

How so? Interpersonal violence expert Dr. Jennifer Freyd, has presented imperssive statistics that show the literal act of speaking out – which Tobias is doing at The LA Art Show, has a measureable impact on decreasing violence. Optimally, courageously, Tobias’ group performance has the potential to directly reduce the statistics. Now that’s true political, consciousness-raising art.

Survivor! will take place at The LA Art Show at the LA Convention Center at 2 p.m. on Sunday the 27th.

Don’t miss.

• Genie Davis; photos provided by Elizabeth Tobias and LA Art Show