Judith A. Rubin

Judith A. Rubin (born 1936) is an American art therapist with 50 years of experience. She is best known for her writing and her films on art therapy for disabled children, as well for her role as the "Art Lady" on the popular television show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

Life and work Judith A. Rubin was born in New York City in 1936. At age 17, Rubin first experienced art as a way to cope with trauma after the death of her friend. Rubin completed her bachelor's in art from Wellesley College in 1957 and pursued a Master's degree in education from Harvard University. While attending graduate school, Rubin recalled a seminar in Human Development where she presented on "The Psychology of Children's Art." During her graduate studies, Rubin came across the work of Margaret Naumburg and became interested in art therapy.

In 1958, Rubin began working as a teacher in Cambridge, MA. She completed her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1976 and earned her licensure as a psychologist in 1979. She completed post-doctoral work at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institute in 1983.

In addition to her writing, Rubin has worked in private practice and has taught at many universities in the U.S. and abroad. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, where she has been on the faculty since 1974 and also has served as faculty-by-invitation at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Institute since 1983. She is also a co-founder and president of a nonprofit educational organization called Expressive Media Inc, Despite this, Rubin’s books continue to be assigned in graduate art therapy programs, and her films are used internationally as visual teaching tools.

Published works

Rubin's books include; The Art of Art Therapy, Approaches to Art Therapy, Artful Therapy, My Mom and Dad Don't Live Together Anymore: A Drawing Book for Children of Separated or Divorced Parents, Introduction to Art Therapy: Sources and Resources, What Do You See?: Phenomenology of Therapeutic Art Expression (with Mala Gitlin Betensky), Drafting and Design for Architecture Workbook,

Films Having started in television in the late 1960s with Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, Rubin has been making films since the early 1970s. She stated that film aided in teaching about art therapy when words were not completely adequate. Her first film in 1972, We'll Show You What We're Gonna Do, documented a therapeutic art program with blind children. Shortly after, she created Children and the Arts which highlighted the therapeutic value of the arts when working with children who were at-risk for problem behavior. Since then, she has created six other films: Beyond Words (art therapy with older adults), Breakthrough (artists in analytic therapy), Art Therapy: A Universal Language for Healing (art therapy around the world), Yes You Can! (art therapy for people with disabilities), and Art Therapy Has Many Faces (now subtitled in 14 languages). With her drama therapy colleague, Dr. Eleanor Irwin, she has produced The Green Creature Within (multimodal therapy with adolescents), and Creative Healing in Mental Health (art and drama in assessment and therapy).

In 2016 she appeared in Art Therapy: The Movie.