Art Therapy, Community Building, Activism, and Outcomes

This article is a descriptive study of two groups who came together through service-learning: The first group is graduate art therapy students enrolled in a research class, who partnered with six community agencies to help them prepare assignments for undergraduate service-learning students in a subsequent semester. The art therapy research students also assisted the agencies with program evaluation. The second group is the six directors of the community agencies who were preparing for service-learning students enrolled in an art history class titled Art as A Social Practice. Service-learning is an experiential pedagogy where community service is integrated into an academic course, and where the services performed meet genuine community needs. The hyphen in service-learning represents the ideal that both the students and community agencies experience benefits from the relationship, although in reality, it is often the experiences of the students rather than the agencies that receive greater attention in the scholarly research literature. The present article places focus on the community agencies that, in the process of planning for service-learners, made two unexpected requests: First they requested that the service-learners stay longer than one semester, and secondly, they requested assistance with evaluating the effectiveness of their programs. This article is about the efforts to respond to these requests through the assistance of art therapy research students. With growing trends in community-based art therapy practice, greater attention to the community agencies where art therapists work is necessary and valuable to art therapy preparation. The present article describes six distinctive communities, illustrating new frontiers of practice. The research students’ experiences and the experiences of the community partners were assessed using qualitative methods that included pre and post-questionnaires, written reflections of students, interviews of agency directors and agency, student, and researcher focus group transcripts. This study will inform other art therapy programs who may want to use a service-learning approach to teaching research. A discussion of the promising practices of service-learning and research, as well as the challenges leads to recommendations for art therapy education

Constructing professional identity through practica and service learning: A study in art therapy.

This study explored how participation in service learning and practica influenced professional identity construction of graduate art therapy students. The study took place over one academic semester, in an art therapy practicum class at a state university. Eleven graduate students enrolled in the class were the subjects of the study. During the semester, students completed 300 hours of practicum and service learning activities. Each student was placed at a practicum site of her choosing, and together as a class, participated in a service learning project at an elementary school. The influences of practica and service learning on professional identity were studied throughout the semester, through students' participation in practica, in service learning, in practicum seminars, through personal interviews and through written reflections. The students were interviewed at the beginning and end of the semester. They completed self-portraits as art therapists that provided additional verification of the processes of identity construction. These multiple sources of data were analyzed using phenomenological methods. Findings suggest that distinct features of the practica and service learning contexts made certain issues salient to the co-researchers and that the ways in which the issues were addressed contributed to professional identity development. Practica and service learning contexts both provided meaningful service to the community and enhanced academic learning. Both contributed to professional skill development and expertise. In addition, service learning contributed opportunities to develop professional identity through social responsibility and inter- and intra-personal learning. The practicum seminar and its reflective assignments helped the co-researchers to understand and resolve professional identity issues.Ph.D.Adult educationEducationHealth Sciences, EducationHealth and Environmental SciencesHigher educationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/123165/2/3068859.pd

Enhancing the Creative Process

This session will address perspectives on creativity in adulthood with a focus on enhancing creativity in college students and older adult learners. Examples of perspectives include discussion of the creative process for students in diverse areas such as art, design, and education. Additionally, the session will address how the creative process enriches the quality of life for older adults. A review of the relevant literature and case studies will be featured. The session consists of 4 papers; including a paper by the session chairs

ArtsCorpsDetroit

Mid-American Session Proposal Community and Collaboration ArtsCorpsDetroit Creative industries provide direct economic benefits to communities by creating jobs, attracting investments, generating tax revenues, and stimulating local economies through tourism and consumer purchases. These industries provide an array of other benefits, such as infusing other industries with creative insight for their products and services and preparing workers to participate in the contemporary workforce. Because arts and culture enhance quality of life, they are an important complement to community development, enriching local amenities and attracting young professionals to an area. To ensure the long-term vitality of the cultural sector, urban areas such as metropolitan Detroit must develop and nurture programs that leverage human creative capital. Typically the arts have been defended on the basis of their economic impact on communities and on quality of life factors in terms of attracting people and businesses to arts-rich communities. A crucial factor, often overlooked, is the intrinsic transformative value of arts engagement in widening people\u27s view of creativity, action and engagement. In the proposed session ArtsCorpsDetroit will discuss strategies for building effective community partnerships to leverage human creative capital. Facilitated by ArtsCorpsDetroit, an initiative of Wayne State University and Tech Town, participants will hear from three differing perspectives, 1. higher education faculty members, 2. community partners, and 3. students who have engaged (collaboratively) on arts based community projects. Panelists will discuss the obstacles and benefits of “community and collaboration”. ArtsCorpsDetroit also will provide a bus tour of panelists’ projects to show Community and Collaboration “at-work”