“One Hen” and Encouraging the Creativity of Children

Brian Murphy is a social worker who works with children at risk, and is a celebrated creator of fanciful and compelling wire sculptures. He is also the founder of Totally Wired Sculpture and a leader of workshops for artists, health care professionals and kids from diverse and often complicated backgrounds. His exceptional contribution to Violence Transformed’s Gold Foundation Workshop Series was a two-stage project that began with a workshop for children at Roxbury Community College's day care center. The children then performed on stage in the children’s play “One Hen” at RCC’s Mainstage Theater. The first part of the project involved working with the children, family members and early childhood educators to help the preschoolers develop and create their own costumes for the play and to give them (and their caregivers) a sense of how the children’s own creativity would enhance the play’s final production. The second part of the project was a post-play workshop for the children, their families, their daycare providers and other healthcare providers working with children at risk. The goal was to demonstrate how sculpture and art can be used as a tool to encourage and empower children to express themselves and connect to a larger goal. It was enormously fun and hugely successful!