Journal of Applied Arts & Health - Volume 14, Issue 2, 2023

Art-based research (ABR) and Developmental Transformations (DvT) both originate and draw from the theory and practice of creative arts therapies. ABR uses response art (RA) in all art modalities to further understand and give form to intersubjective dialogue. The goal of this article is to demarcate the substantial similarities between ABR and DvT and ultimately to suggest their combined potential for future research. The article provides an overview of the underpinnings of ABR and DvT and then outlines the research design and relevant results from an ABR–DvT pilot study. Finally, a summarized dialogue carried out by the authors underscores the complementarity of the two methods.

This case study provides an overview of ‘Sidestep’, an arts in health project for staff at a specialist child sexual abuse unit in an Irish paediatric hospital, undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic. The focus of the project was to provide a ‘virtual creative space’ to support staff across this period of professional and personal challenge. The project was evaluated using pencil and paper questionnaires, and participant feedback is included here, to illuminate the value of an art-based approach to supporting staff well-being at times of crisis and change. Staff described participation in the project as a unique experience which allowed for connection and a sense of ballast during remote working conditions, as well as providing opportunities for meaning-making and reflection. The article is accompanied by images from the project to illustrate the ways in which participants used the image-making process to explore experiences of the pandemic.

In May 2019, a group of dancers, photographers and local participants gathered in Minamata, Japan, a community affected by industrial mercury pollution since the 1950s. Philippe Chéhère, Julie Salgues and the Minamata Dance Collective conducted a series of dance sessions with citizens, students, dancers and people touched by Minamata disease in various places of significance in Minamata and explored the potential of movement and its transformation in people and the environment. Through choreographic poetry, they explored the site and the story of Minamata involving 180 people, using dance as a modality of encounter and dialogue. The ten-day dance project culminated in a participatory performance at Minamata Memorial. This case study documents the process of participatory arts by interweaving history, photographs and participants’ voices.

Voces, a coalition of volunteer expressive arts therapists, created a one-year programme for Central American migrants at a large Mexican shelter on the US border during 2020–21. A team of four psychosocial professionals at the shelter were trained via an online course and weekly self-care and supervision. Two Hispanic members of Voces guided the team in using music, dance, role-play, stories and art to help address the high levels of anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression shown by the evaluations of 900 migrants waiting up to a year for US entry. The Voces members guided shelter professionals to create expressive arts groups for different ages of children and for parents. With scarce materials, online resources like Pixar/Disney shorts and Pinterest posters, culturally relevant music and cartoons were used to address emotional regulation, conflict resolution, attachment and self-concept.

This article presents a reflection on the hurdles faced by arts and health organizations during England’s COVID-19 lockdown in 2020–21 through the work of the arts team at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), Lime Arts. As the pandemic hit, Lime risked being shut down, their premises reallocated and staff redeployed. Convinced that, more than ever, frontline health professionals might benefit from creative workshops, Lime piloted a six-month innovative programme of online creative workshops for MFT staff. Lime then partnered with the Employee Health and Wellbeing Service to take the online workshops across the Trust, creating a new project called Create.Connect.Unwind. The pilot phase ended in May 2022 with a Creativity and Wellbeing Festival at Manchester Royal Infirmary. The authors reflect on this two-year project, considering in retrospect the team response, the participant response and the artwork created as well as the creative perspective behind the project.