Search Results (28)

This phenomenologically informed qualitative study gives voice to the experience of a teacher, a special educator, and co-art therapists in art therapy workshops given to first-generation immigrant adolescents in a welcome classroom in Quebec, Canada. This study uses a constructivist–interpretive paradigm, allowing the exploration of individual and interactional dynamics in artmaking. The objective was to explore the experiences and perceptions of a teacher, a special educator, and two art therapists who participated in art-based workshops in a welcome classroom for adolescents, and to understand the meaning these workshops hold for them as well as their perception of the meaning it holds for the young people. Grounded in the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC), 17 first-generation immigrant adolescents, their teacher, the special educator, and two art therapists participated in nine art therapy workshops and an art exhibition to foster creativity, openness, and reciprocity. The adolescents had experienced trauma, including wars, violence, and separation, as well as uprooting, and acculturation in the host country. Given the limited research on school-based art therapy workshops in high schools, this study seeks to address that gap by examining how students in a welcome class emerge, unfold, and express themselves through the perspectives of the supporting adults. Reflexive thematic analyses revealed that the art workshops were an emancipatory experience, an existential path to crossing barriers, and a lived space for self-expression. These findings highlight the ETC’s potential in helping immigrant adolescents and their classroom community share their stories and they emphasize art therapy’s transcultural value. Full article

Youth make up a fifth of the world’s population and will suffer the consequences of the climate catastrophe to differing extents depending on their social and geographical locations. The climate crisis is thus a matter of both intergenerational and racial/imperial injustice. Intersectional and interdisciplinary climate justice approaches are growing in the field of youth climate activism and, more often, these are necessarily engaging with collaborative methods to platform the voices of marginalised youth and those who live the colonial difference. Our paper provides early reflections from a youth climate activism artistic research project titled ‘Theatre of Climate Action: Amplifying Youth Voices for Climate Justice in Guadeloupe and South Africa’ (ToCA). In this project, sixteen young people aged 18-30 from South Africa and Guadeloupe collaborate to design, produce, and create theatre performances that reflect their exploration of climate justice through their lived experiences using artistic research methods. Specifically, we examine the opportunities and challenges in using the framework of Safe(r), Brave(r), and Riskier Spaces to support collaborative and emancipatory art-making practices that allow youth to become co-creators in this project. Insights revealed that an intentional embrace of safety, bravery, and risk as an ethico-political basis for art making was critical to cultivate a sense of community, trust, and belonging for youth co-creators. Full article

Intersectional oppression and invisibility are primary drivers of cognitive and mental health disparities that affect Black women’s wellness. Older Black women additionally experience compounding effects of ageism, which may place them at increased risk for a decline in cognitive functioning and mental wellness. To date, limited strengths-based, culturally relevant programming has focused on aging Black women. Fewer have incorporated Black women elders into conversations on Black liberation and the transformational change needed to create possible futures rooted in equity, healing, and health. This manuscript describes the inception and development of Radical Imagination, a creative aging program for Black women in the San Francisco Bay Area. Over ten weeks, 42 Black women (M age = 73.6, SD = 6.20; range: 58–85 years old) participated in the program, which incorporated brain and mental health education, art-making, storytelling, and photography. Grounded in principles of Afrofuturism and radical healing, participants explored past narratives of Black women and created a collective vision for a future that centers on Black women’s needs. Approximately 54.8% of participants attended more than one workshop. Upon program completion, exit surveys indicated that participants reported a moderate level of hopefulness about their ability to shape the future. Respondents reported overall satisfaction with the workshop series. We conclude with reflections on our process and recommendations for ways to support aging Black women using Afrofuturism and the arts. Full article

Background/Objectives: Art-based community projects positively impact mental health recovery by fostering creativity, self-expression, and social engagement. Despite growing evidence on participatory art interventions, limited studies have used a mixed-methods approach to examine their effects. The present study examines how participation in the Artistic Couples project influences individuals’ subjective perceptions of recovery, psychological well-being, and self-stigma. Methods: This exploratory multi-center study employed an embedded mixed-methods design, integrating qualitative Photovoice methodology with a quantitative pre–post survey. Participants (N = 30) from five mental health institutions across Catalonia engaged in collaborative art creation with local artists. Qualitative data from Photovoice discussions and semi-structured interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, while quantitative data from standardized measures were examined using paired t-tests and correlation analysis. Results: Qualitative findings revealed the following three key themes: (1) artmaking as an artistic couple, emphasizing the collaborative process and art as a means of self-expression; (2) social connections, highlighting increased belonging, emotional support, and reduced loneliness; and (3) understanding mental health recovery, showcasing art’s role in identity reconstruction and personal growth. Quantitative results indicated a significant improvement in the “Connecting and Belonging” subscale of the RAS-DS (t = −2.51; p = 0.023), particularly among women (t = −2.85; p = 0.019), suggesting enhanced social integration. However, no statistically significant changes were observed in overall recovery, well-being, or self-stigma scores. Conclusions: This study provides evidence that participatory community art projects enhance social connections and self-expression, which are key elements of mental health recovery. The findings suggest that creative collaborations facilitate emotional processing and challenge stigma. The improvement in social belonging supports integrating arts-based interventions in recovery-oriented care. Future research should examine long-term effects and gender-sensitive approaches. Full article

The article examines my artist’s struggle for inner freedom in practice-led artistic research through the medium of drawing. This inquiry, framed within a Catholic perspective, investigates the idea that the quest for inner freedom is vital for artistic work that aims to create and communicate the ineffable. This article focuses on my strive to reach deeper levels of spiritual experience and to work from that state of consciousness. I explore the artist’s role as a mediator, connecting the invisible, intuitively understood dimensions, and making them visible through artistic creations. I conducted research by closely observing the artmaking process and the conditions in which it is undertaken. Research methodologies specific to the artistic field (visual arts) and the qualitative narrative research method were predominantly used. The process of preparation for the drawing by engaging in contemplative practice is also a subject of inquiry. The article highlights contemplative practices as tools for achieving inner freedom and unlocking creative potential. Full article

This article explores the adaptation of arts education for online learning environments in Higher Education institutions, focusing on preserving the experiential nature and studio culture while addressing socially engaged arts education and sustainability topics. Using the “Arts-in-a-box” methodology developed within the Critical ARts Education for Sustainable Societies (CARE/SS) Erasmus+ European-funded project (2022–2024), two distance learning teacher training courses were analyzed qualitatively. The findings reveal that the methodology successfully recreated essential aspects of studio culture, fostering deep engagement, critical dialog, and creative inquiry in virtual settings. Participants reported transformative learning experiences, highlighting the methodology’s effectiveness in overcoming the experiential barriers in online arts education and promoting socially engaged arts for sustainable societies. The study identifies effective strategies for building community and enabling hands-on art-making in online environments, such as live workshops, curated art material packages, and digital tools for sharing and reflection. These strategies allowed participants to connect theory with practice meaningfully, promoting a sense of agency in applying socially engaged arts and sustainability themes in their professional contexts. By bridging the experiential gaps of online learning, this study offers a framework for educators seeking to adapt arts education to digital platforms while preserving its core pedagogical features and fostering societal impact. Full article

Disabled people are uniquely positioned in relation to the digital turn. Academic ableism, the inaccessibility of digital space, and gaps in digital literacy present barriers, while, at the same time, disabled, Deaf, and neurodivergent people’s access knowledge is at the forefront of innovations in culture and crip technoscience. This article explores disability, technology, and access through the concept of crip digital intimacy, a term that describes the relational and affective advances that disabled people make within digital space and through digital technology toward accessing the arts. We consider how moments of crip digital intimacy emerged through Accessing the Arts: Centring Disability Perspectives in Access Initiatives—a research project that explored how to make the arts more accessible through engaging disabled artist-participants in virtual storytelling, knowledge sharing, and art-making activities. Our analysis tracks how crip digital intimacies emerged through the ways participants collectively organized and facilitated access for themselves and each other. Guided by affordance theory and in line with the political thrust of crip technoscience, crip legibility, and access intimacy, we argue that crip digital intimacy emphasizes the interdependent and relational nature of access, recognizes the creativity and vitality of nonnormative bodyminds, and understands disability as a political—and frequently transgressive—way of being in the world. Full article

Preaching is one of the most creative things a pastor does. This essay explores how a theology of creativity, the imagination, and the arts can encourage preachers to embrace proclamation as creative work. The invitation to preachers to engage their creativity and imagination in preaching rests on the theological claim that creativity is intrinsic to human beings as made in the image of God the Creator. To create is to realize a core human vocation and to deepen knowledge of God. The imagination is a primary avenue to such knowledge, since the imagination is a faculty that allows for a holistic grasp of realities both seen and unseen. An artistic approach to preaching is appropriate in that art functions in similar ways to preaching: like preaching, art explores the depths of human existence, creates wholes out of fragments, and makes connections between seemingly disparate phenomena. The dispositions of the artist are vital for preachers, especially the courage and risk-taking required in art-making as a venture into the unknown. These functions of art and qualities of the artist lead to reflections concerning the particular challenges involved in being a Christian artist, and to the role of beauty in the knowledge of God and hence in preaching. Full article

Media coverage was vital in establishing the popular reputation of the Abstract Expressionists. Reporting regularly relied on photographic portraits to present these artists as modernist innovators who were an extension of (or even a replacement for) the work of art. Jackson Pollock came to epitomize the Abstract Expressionist artist, with “action” photographs capturing his radical painting method. Pollock’s contemporary, American sculptor David Smith, similarly transformed his medium—in his case by embracing industrial methods to make three-dimensional objects. However, given the constraints inherent in the process of welding he employed, how could Smith’s image be reconstituted as a celebration of artistic individuality so crucial to modernism? The very method Smith embraced to push the boundaries of art kept him from representing the genius creator who channeled the forces of nature to produce culture. By tracing photographs documenting his career published in local and regional newspapers, popular magazines from Popular Science to Life, and mass art magazines from Magazine of Art to Arts, this paper demonstrates that images of Smith at work as an anonymous industrial worker enveloped in protective gear were regularly balanced with images of contemplation—the traditional image of the artist as mediating intelligence. Yet, over the years of his career, the problem of representing Smith was addressed somewhat differently. Early on, there was a tendency to show Smith applying his novel art-making techniques to the production of more traditional objects. During World War II, when Smith was employed as a commercial welder, Smith the artist legitimized reporting on Smith the worker. Finally, in the post-war world—as Smith benefited from the burst of publicity surrounding the triumph of Abstract Expressionism—his rigorous manipulation of metal was celebrated as masculine display, effectively shifting attention away from common industrial labor to heroic individual struggle. Full article

“Dinner table experience” describes the uniquely crip affect evoked by deaf and disabled people’s childhood memories of sitting at the dinner table, witnessing conversations unfolding around them, but without them. Drawing on 11 prairie-based deaf and/or disabled artists’ dinner table experiences, four researcher-artivist authors map a critical bricolage of prairie-based deaf and disabled art from the viewpoint of a metaphorical dinner table set up beneath the wide-skyed “flyover province” of Saskatchewan. Drawing on a non-linear, associative-thinking-based timespan that begins with Tracy Latimer’s murder and includes a contemporary telethon, this article charts the settler colonial logics of normalcy and struggles over keeping up with urban counterparts that make prairie-based deaf and disability arts unique. In upholding an affirmative, becoming-to-know prairie-based crip art and cultural ethos using place-based orientations, the authors point to the political possibilities of artmaking and (re)worlding in the space and place of the overlooked. Full article

Heralded by promises for the long-awaited economic empowerment of digital art and the paradigmatic shift of creative production, the art market’s fusion with blockchain technologies and the crypto economy has polarized opinions among artists, cultural workers, and economists. Its capricious dynamics and exuberance largely shroud the continuation of the art market’s ideology and the reinforcement of the disturbing political vectors of the crypto/blockchain complex. In this paper, I address several interrelated aspects of art tokenization in a compact and comprehensive critical framework that may be useful for a constructive discourse of contemporary digital art. By focusing on the core poetic principles of artmaking—which concern the historically informed autonomy of expression and socially responsible freedom of creative thinking—I identify some of the prospects for advancing digital art towards an ethically coherent and epistemologically relevant expressive stratum. The opening sections Introduction, Markets, and Contrivances outline the art market, its adoption of crypto technologies, and its influences on the production and expressive modes of digital art. Sections Ideologies and Myths describe the ideological and technical issues of the crypto economy, while Shams and Fallouts delve into the conceptual shortcomings and ethical, political, and creative consequences of the standard art tokenization rhetoric. The closing sections Options and Conclusion present the considerations for a productive assessment of blockchain technologies in digital art and summarize some of the alternative approaches for navigating and interfacing with the crypto art world. Full article

This article examines how notions of “material” and “materiality” were infused, both technically and discursively, into American landscape painting in the late nineteenth century. Focusing particularly on the praxis of open-air painting as consolidating a new mode in landscape painting as well as a new artistic identity, this article argues that painting outdoors was perceived by artists in terms of agency, uniting painter, painting, and landscape; but unlike earlier romantic or Transcendentalist approaches, this idea was not conceived of as a solely spiritual union but, rather, as a mode that is embedded in the mundane, in the existence of objects, of embodied engagement and material means. The overt affinity between the basic idea of the praxis—painting outdoors in ‘real’ nature—and material aspects of art-making, is discussed as the underpinning of a new emerging episteme of American landscape painting, while considering the environment wherein this phenomenon was cultivated within a specific moment in American culture. Paintings and texts, generated by American painters and critics between the late 1870s and the 1890s, are read in this article through the lens of recent theoretical phenomenological approaches to landscape, illuminating the unique role that materiality played in these representations. Moreover, tying the findings to the changing conceptions of both landscape and art in the Gilded Age, the article concludes that landscape painters of the ‘new generation’ sought to evade commodifying tendencies of image-making by deliberately engaging with materiality, devising a mode of landscape representation that would not succumb to the flattening steamroller of capitalist consumer culture. Full article

Advocating for the academic value of community-based art education requires empirical evidence that students are not just participating in community-building activities, but also effectively learning content. Unfortunately, little is known about the short- and long-term cognitive outcomes on student participants, particularly in higher education. Based in a phenomenological methodology with a reflective lifeworld research design, this longitudinal study seeks to understand the interwoven cognitive and social outcomes of participating in community-engaged art projects among college students. Informed by a theoretical framework in which CBAE situates learning in authentic social contexts, findings suggest that it may be decisively poised to yield short- and long-term educational benefits in which student learning deepens through the development of social connectedness. These findings expand the possibilities for collaboration as a pedagogical model for inclusive postsecondary education. Full article

This paper describes young children’s symbolic meaning-making practices and participation in complex aesthetic experiences in a contemporary art museum context. Through an ongoing long-term research and pedagogy project, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (MCA) is working with researchers to provide regular opportunities for young children (aged birth–5 years) and their families—all members of the same early childhood education (ECE) services—to encounter art works, engage with materials, and experience the museum environment. The program provides a rich experience of multiple forms of communication, ways of knowing and ways of expressing knowings: through connecting with images, videos and told stories about artists and their practice, sensorial engagement with tactile materials, and embodied responses to artworks and materials. Children also experience the physicality of the museum space, materials for art-making and the act of mark-making to record ideas, memories, and reflections. The project supports the development of a pedagogy of listening and relationships and is grounded in children’s rights as cultural citizens to participation, visibility and belonging in cultural institutions such as the MCA. Full article

This paper examines Wu Bin’s (c. 1543–c. 1626) Ten Views of a Lingbi Rock (1610) from the perspective of Buddhist epistemological notions in seventeenth-century China. In studying a series of gazes focusing on a single object—a stone with a very complex surface—my discussion posits an act of excessive seeing as a process of making worlds. I take a theoretical cue from contemporaneous intellectual discourses, especially those that flourished with the revival of Yogācāra Buddhism in late Ming China. This paper will show how an art object comes into being in perceivable worlds interconnected by the individual’s sensory experiences. My study aims to inquire into the role of illusion as sensory experiences, phenomenological processes, and even notions of soteriological efficacy beyond formal artistic devices. To that end, this paper is the first attempt to situate Ten Views of a Lingbi Rock alongside Buddhist thoughts and artmaking. Full article