Honoring Tally Tripp, 1955-2023
Tally Tripp’s love for travel, appreciation for diverse cultures, ability to authentically connect with people from around the world, and skills as an art therapist led to her interest in participating in the TAPTA in 2017.
From day one, her wealth of knowledge about trauma-informed art therapy and her example as an empathic, sensitively-attuned, fully-present, and authentic caregiver greatly contributed to the growth of TAPTA and its participant-facilitators. She became a valued member of the Visitor Leadership Team (VLT) in 2018 and continued in this role until her untimely death from cancer in 2023.
Tally was an art therapist, social worker, and certified trauma therapist. She was also an Assistant Professor at George Washington University and the founder and director of their Art Therapy Clinic. Her many years of clinical practice, graduate-level teaching, and experiences as a workshop facilitator in international settings provided the foundation for her invaluable contributions to the TAPTA.
The Tally Tripp Community Workshop Fund
This memorial fund has been established in honor of Tally’s commitment and passion for the ongoing development of the arts therapies in East Africa.
Contributions to this fund support community-based workshops led by East Africans who are seasoned TAPTA participant-facilitators and therapeutic arts practitioners. Through these workshops, paraprofessional skills in the therapeutic use of the arts are shared with people already providing social services to children and families, enabling culturally relevant therapeutic arts to become more widely available.
Story Cloths
Tally had a deep love for story cloths, a craft tradition that uses sewn fabric scraps to express personal and collective narratives.
Historically used by women to convey the conditions of their lives when other means of expression were denied, she introduced story cloths into the TAPTA program as an example of how the arts can afford safer means for expression of not only the unspeakable, but also the cherished and joyful aspects of life.
During Tally’s cancer treatment, her TAPTA colleagues and participants from past trips created a collective story cloth for Tally. It was centered around an excerpt from a poem by Mary Oliver, with each person responsible for including a word or phrase from the poem in their textile piece.
The finished piece stands as a tribute to how Tally’s kind, open, loving presence lives on through the lives and work of others.