Close in Art (2020, April) Friedl Dicker-Brandeis - Bauhaus artist and art educator - taught art to the children in the Nazi Terezin “model” ghetto and hid more than 5,000 art pieces, many of which would be published in the book I Never Saw a Another Butterfly. Even in these circumstances, she situated empathy as central to her artistic philosophy. She believed that sketching demanded the artist’s sensitive observation and attention, which could foster a sense of closeness and connection with the subject. . Her ideas are central to art therapy. One of her students (pre-internment), Edith Kramer, is considered a founder of art therapy in the U.S. The notion of aesthetic empathy also inspired my focus on arts-based civic dialogues. In our current days of COVID-19 quarantine, Dicker-Brandeis’s techniques have helped me to bridge the gap between physical distance and social connection. (12” x 18”, color pencil)