The need
2.9×
Utah veterans die by suicide at 2.9 times the rate of other Utahns. About two in three of those veterans were outside the VA system.
Utah DHHS, Violence and Injury Prevention Program, 2012–2021. VA-system share: 2017–2021.
Operation Palette
Art therapy where veterans live
Operation Palette is Utah’s first PTSD veteran art therapy clinic. It sits on the Art Castle campus, steps from the homes where veterans live.
Operation Palette at a glance
The answer
12 weeks
Operation Palette’s twelve-week program blends studio art, movement and community connection. It gives veterans a front door outside the VA system.
The home
5
Five of our 32 affordable homes go to veterans. Joining the program stays voluntary and separate from tenancy.
How it works
Why art reaches what words can’t
Trauma often lives in images, sounds and sensations, not in sentences. Many veterans find it hard to put the worst moments into words. Talk therapy asks them to do exactly that, and many stop coming.
Art offers another door
A veteran can paint or shape a memory and set it outside their own head, at arm’s length, where they can look at it and rework it. They do not have to say it aloud first. Art therapy complements talk therapy and medicine. It keeps people in care.
Three systems, one practice
A 2024 peer-reviewed framework describes PTSD as three brain systems out of tune: a threat alarm stuck on, a weakened planning and control network, and a fraying sense of self. Making art engages all three. It calms the senses in a controlled way, it exercises planning and decisions, and it builds a story about who you are.
Malhotra et al., Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2024. This framework explains why art therapy could work. It does not measure how much it works.
The evidence
What the research says
The evidence shows promise, and it grows every year. Here are six findings, in plain terms, with their sources.
94%
Quality of life
A 2024 review pooled 21 randomized trials with 868 people. The average person who made art in therapy reported better quality of life than about 94% of people who did not. This compares the average participant with the comparison group. It does not say that 94% of participants improved.
Maddox et al., Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 2024.
Strong
PTSD symptoms
The same review found a large drop in PTSD symptoms after visual arts therapy. The result sits just short of the standard test for statistical certainty. Researchers call it strong but not yet conclusive.
Maddox et al., 2024. A second review of creative arts therapies pooled 7 controlled studies with 665 people. It also favored the therapy, though the studies varied widely (Wang et al., BMC Psychology, 2025).
9 / 10
Veterans’ own ratings
In a study of 222 service members, veterans rated art therapy 7.8 out of 10 after a three-week program. After long-term treatment, they rated it 9 out of 10.
Kaimal et al., Military Psychology, 2020.
2×
Time matters
The share of veterans doing personal-insight work nearly doubled with long-term care, from about 4 in 10 to nearly 8 in 10. The share doing grief work rose from 40% to 68%. Hard material takes time to reach, so veterans need a place they can return to.
Kaimal et al., Military Psychology, 2020.
95%
Would refer a fellow veteran
At Fort Belvoir, 95% of service members said they would refer a fellow veteran after an introductory group series. The benefit showed up across ranks and across mild and severe brain injuries.
Kaimal et al., The Arts in Psychotherapy, 2019 (program of 204 participants).
~6
Visits each, by choice
In a music therapy program inside veteran supportive housing, 21 veterans came back about six times each, with no requirement to attend. They rated group cohesion 4.3 out of 5. This is the closest match to Art Castle’s model of care steps from home.
Gooding et al., Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2025. Music therapy, a small group.
The military uses it
Creative Forces, the National Endowment for the Arts military healing arts network, has delivered 141,214 creative arts therapy visits to 25,063 patients since 2017, at 12 clinical sites. The VA’s own evidence review mapped 94 studies of art therapy. Most reviews report beneficial effects on health, and they call for larger trials.
NEA Creative Forces, 2025. VA Evidence Synthesis Program, Evidence Map of Art Therapy, 2019.
Utah sits outside the network
Nine of the 12 Creative Forces clinical sites lie east of the Rockies. Between Colorado Springs and the Pacific coast, the network has zero sites. Utah has no clinical creative arts therapy program for veterans. Operation Palette is the first.
Who designs it
Joyful Summits
UAA contracts Joyful Summits to design Operation Palette from the ground up. Founder and Executive Director Rebekah “Becks” Logan leads the work. She has built, run and measured recovery and crisis programs.
- 45direct-care staff Becks supervised as a program director
- 3–5therapy groups a week, with one Veterans Treatment Court group for a year
- 5–8crisis response team members Becks managed
- 2022year she presented her veteran PTSD research at the ADAA conference
Becks Logan’s path
- She studied the science. Becks earned a B.A. in psychology with a neuroscience minor at the University of North Carolina Asheville, with honors, in 2021. She led a research project on how prolonged exposure therapy works for veterans with PTSD, and she presented it at the Anxiety and Depression Association of America conference in 2022.
- She built programs from scratch. As program director at PIVOTPoint WNC (2019–2022), she wrote every curriculum, policy and service plan. She also built the referral partnerships and outcome tracking. Her clients included court-referred adults, people in halfway houses, students and neighbors who lived without a home.
- She sat with veterans. Becks ran the Veterans Treatment Court group herself. She led three to five therapeutic groups a week with the same group for a full year.
- She led large teams. As program director at The Willows at Red Oak Recovery (2022–2023), she supervised one program manager, four supervisors and 45 direct-care staff. She wrote the staff training, held the program to licensing and accreditation standards and worked with clinical and medical teams.
- She answers the call. At YCC Family Crisis Center, Becks coordinated the Sexual Assault Crisis Response Team for Weber and Morgan counties. She managed five to eight responders, trained staff and helped shape every support group’s curriculum.
What they build
- A 12-week curriculum of studio art, expressive movement and community connection
- A needs assessment of Utah veterans, and outreach to service and referral partners
- Intake, risk and needs assessment, individual service plans, and safety and crisis procedures
- Staff training materials
- A licensing and accreditation plan
- Participant feedback and clinical outcome measures
- A staffing model, service budget and launch plan
Led by professionals. Joyful Summits designs the program, and UAA reviews and approves the model, staffing and budget before any participant service begins. Credentialed providers lead clinical care.
Sources: UAA and Joyful Summits program development and partnership statement, October 20, 2026; Art Castle District HDLP special populations response, October 2026.
Join the castle.
Crystal Young
Development Lead, Sterling & Pink
cy@sterlingpink.net
Derek Dyer
Executive Director, Utah Arts Alliance
derek@utaharts.org