Last week I met some of our newest ingredients.

Ten middle school-aged children have studied together this past year at the Newcomer Center on the Chapel Hill High School campus. They are refugees from Burma who have settled here, putting thousands of miles between them and their previous lives in refugee camps filled with persecution and trauma.

These students have discovered a lot about their new country this year under the guidance of their teacher, Mimi Collins. They also have discovered new things about themselves through their explorations in art.

The Art Therapy Institute, a nonprofit based in Durham, has been coming to the Newcomer Center since January. It has been nurturing the students' artistic tendencies with the intention of helping them work through issues that linger from their difficult early childhoods.

These creative outpourings are on exhibit in a show called "Journeys to a Different Landscape," on display at University Mall through June 14 in the former Avenues' space across from the Print Shop. Also included in the show are a few pieces from other refugees from Burma at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School and a Raleigh group through the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. A reception is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at the mall.

Kristin Linton, who along with Eva Miller and Ilene Sperling founded the Institute, said art therapy helps people who have difficulty communicating or can't put words to experiences.

"The use of imagery and symbol-making can elicit a lot that traditional therapy can't access," Linton said.

While getting her master's degree at New York University, Linton used art therapy as she worked with a girl who had cognitive impairments from trauma. Initially, the girl made pieces with facial features in the wrong places, but Linton kept supporting her in creating something that would stand up and be strong.

"She would rip half of it up and we would repair it," Linton said. "She would paint it and it would look distorted. It was very reflective of her current inner state. By the end it was one whole piece. She was really proud of it."

Since Linton, Miller and Sperling founded the Art Therapy Institute three years ago, the organization has focused on underserved groups, such as residents of domestic violence shelters. So when Megan Ellenson, who was working with refugees from Burma living in Carrboro, contacted the Institute, the match seemed ideal. Strowd Roses and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation awarded grants to work with this population.

"Ilene and I went into the group knowing we'd see a lot of symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder," Linton said. "We wanted to increase their ability to communicate, their sense of community, their ability to be with each other, and to help with their sense of self identity."

With guidance, the children have painted pictures and made animal habitats and clay memory boxes.

"They have done drawings of what their lives were like before and what they are like now to spur different conversations," Linton said. "They are all very excited and engaged."

Linton said she is pleased with how the art therapy has helped the students. "The group is more cohesive as a unit and more inclusive of each other," she said. "Also, they are able to recognize their different experiences, but that they are all together now."

This art exhibit symbolically marks the finish of the first year of the Newcomer Center, which began in the fall of 2008. The students in Collins' class come from three different middle school areas, and there are 19 high school students in the classroom next to hers, also refugees from Burma. The goal is to help newcomers progress to their own schools. Many of the young refugees had very little education in Burma, and few had any experience with many of the features of modern life that most of us take for granted.

"Students who came here were not necessarily literate in their own language, as they did not have much education," Collins said. "So not only are they learning English, but there is a double whammy."

She has offered experiences outside the classroom, including trick or treating, an American birthday party, and a visitto the Morehead Planetarium.

"The unique problem with refugee kids is that they don't have any life experiences," Collins said. "Most haven't been to a restaurant or in a car. When you are reading you need to have all these experiences behind you so you can understand what it is to pin the tail on the donkey. Same thing about Halloween and Thanksgiving."

Having their art exhibited is another new and mysterious occurrence for these students.

"I think they are having a hard time conceiving of it," Collins said. "When my student saw his art on the invitation, he was stunned. My students are just so delightful. They are so eager to learn."

Let us be so eager to go and learn about them.