Art-making and Wellbeing with Professional Artists During a Pandemic (original) (raw)
Related papers
The therapeutic value of creative art-making during the covid-19 pandemic
DergiPark (Istanbul University), 2022
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a major life stressor and building resilience is integral to coping with it. Creative art-making is one way to address the adversities of the pandemic as it allows creative individuals to experience positive affect, engage in selfreflection, and heal psychological wounds. In this study, 270 participants completed a background survey reflecting upon health and precautionary measures, emotional state felt prior to participating, and trait resilience. Participants also assessed their artistic practices both before and during the pandemic with the focus on change in attitudes. Each described an artwork created during the pandemic and reflected on its value. As expected, participants who followed precautionary measures were in better health, experienced positive affect, and were generally more resilient. Emotional self-care became a primary focus of art-making during the pandemic, whereas getting into a state of flow and having a non-judgmental attitude while creating the artwork were the central focus prior to the pandemic. These findings show that art-making offers therapeutic benefits for an individual's psychological well-being and that there were deleterious impacts of the pandemic on the self-expression process.
Art in Isolation: Artist Experiences during Covid-19
2021
Isolation during Covid-19 has affected many artists, but the ways in which artists were affected by isolation in their art practice during Covid-19 depended on the pre-existing forms of inspiration and motivation that fueled their practice. For artists who depended more on internal motivation, isolation was a medium by which they could focus internally and channel the emotional effects of Covid and social stress into their work. Artists who were driven by external motivation did not benefit from isolation to the same degree in their work process and found other methods of motivation during physical isolation, such as social media and literature forms. For all artists, there was an adjustment period during Covid as both inner and outer worlds were disturbed; this is due to their interconnected nature. Isolation can be understood as an aesthetic experience that affects both external and internal art inspiration. Overall, artists ultimately attested to their art process changing and th...
The Arts as a Form of Comfort During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The Societal Impacts of Covid-19: A Transnational Perspective, 2021
Society turns to the arts for comfort, escape, healing, entertainment and intellectual challenge. By attending performances, festivals and events, visiting museums and galleries, studying the arts formally or informally, or producing art either professionally or for leisure, the arts assist with building a sense of individual and community identity. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only denied global societies and audiences with opportunities to engage with the arts in live settings, but it has had a profound effect on the arts sector, with institutions closing their doors, festivals and events cancelled, and the production of art either severely restricted, in hibernation, or at worst abandoned. Millions of artists and arts workers around the world are now unemployed and given the short-term, casual and project-driven nature of much of the sector, many are unable to access government support initiatives designed for more conventional business models. While there are many current challenges for the arts as a result of the pandemic, there has been significant engagement with the arts during lockdown periods, largely through digital technologies and virtual formats. This continued engagement with the arts proposes that once COVID-19 is brought under control, the sector will rebuild and prosper again.
The Role of Artistic Creative Activities in Navigating the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia
During the COVID-19 pandemic some Australians turned to artistic creative activities (ACAs) as a way of managing their own mental health and well-being. This study examined the role of ACAs in regulating emotion and supporting mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also attempted to identify at-risk populations. We proposed that (1) participants would use ACAs as avoidance-based emotion regulation strategies; and (2) music engagement would be used for emotion regulation. Australian participants (N = 653) recruited from the general public completed an online survey, which included scales targeting anxiety (GAD7 scale), depression (PHQ9 scale) and loneliness (two UCLA Loneliness Scales, referring to "Before" and "Since" COVID-19). Participants reported which ACAs they had undertaken and ceased during the pandemic using an established list and ranked their undertaken ACAs in terms of effectiveness at making them "feel better." For their top-ranked ACA, participants then completed the Emotion Regulation Scale for Artistic Creative Activities (ERS-ACA), and if participants had undertaken any musical ACAs, also the Musical Engagement Questionnaire (MusEQ). The results supported both hypotheses. ANOVAs indicated that participants ranked significantly higher on the "avoidance" ERS-ACA subscale than the other subscales, and that participants ranked significantly higher on the emotion regulation and musical preference MusEQ subscales than the other subscales. Additionally, while ACAs such as "Watching films or TV shows" and "Cookery or baking" were common, they ranked poorly as effective methods of emotion regulation, whereas "Listening to music" was the second-most frequently undertaken ACA and also the most effective. "Singing" and "Dancing" were among the most ceased ACAs but also ranked among the most effective for emotion regulation, suggesting that support for developing pandemic-safe approaches to these ACAs may provide well-being benefits in future crises. Additionally, correlation analyses showed that younger participants, those who took less exercise during the pandemic, and those with the highest musical engagement reported the poorest well-being. We conclude that ACAs provided an important resource for supporting mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia and could potentially support mental health and well-being in future crises.
International Journal of Psychological Studies, 2012
Most creativity theorists consider artists as "agents of control", capable of overcoming and controlling psychological distress. However, studies have yet to map the "healing" tendency for "everyday creative people" in detailing the process' effects on perception and change. This study was aimed to examine this process via a phenomenological and Perceptual Control Theory perspective (PCT: see Powers, W. T. (1973). Behaviour: The control of perception. Chicago: Aldine). We recruited and interviewed eleven participants who had engaged in art-making and experienced recovery from psychological distress. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to identify themes between participant responses, generated from self-created semi-structured interview schedules following Smith and Osborn's technique (IPA: see Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M. (2008). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In J. A. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods, 2 nd edition, (53-80). London: Sage). Data analysis identified six superordinate themes: 1) "the process of creating as a goal-oriented focus", 2) "internalising process and product", 3) "awareness shift and self-focus", 4) "emotion regulation", 5) "goal change, bonding, and conflict resolution", and 6) "feelings and perceptions within the art-making process". Disconfirming Case Analysis and participant feedback also indicated a seventh theme: 7) "the 'superficial' creative process". The results were interpreted to indicate that art-making involves the purposeful creation of perceptual experience to fulfil higher-order goals and values. The creative process is also a learning process which instigates and promotes positive affect, enhances skills, and facilitates change in higher-order goals. We consider these interpretations in the light of the components of PCT.
Changing Arts and Minds: A survey of health and wellbeing in the creative sector
2018
For those arts organizations and venues who put the word out, either through their newsletters, email circulars, news items, or otherwise, we are exceptionally grateful for your time and efforts. There are too many of you to mention, but we would not have been able to achieve this without you. Finally, we wish to acknowledge and extend gratitude to those who completed the questionnaire and told us their stories. This project is dedicated to you.
World Journal of Education and Humanities
In this paper, the authors review a single session in which a small group of participants from different countries within the Asian Pacific region used creative arts improvisation to develop collaborative expression of their subjective experiences during the COVID health crisis. During this review, the authors consider if meaningful communication could develop among the participants and how such exchanges might be expanded to contribute to communities and within an international context. The group was conducted online, and the members were from Guam, China and another woman from India currently studying in New Zealand. The improvisational expressions consisted of dance, vocal music, art, poetry, and fairy tale making followed by discussion. The general themes from this collection of images that emerged from the improvisations ranged from disconnection to positive connection towards each other and a renewal of hope. These developments occurred online and among people from different c...
Art Therapy in Pandemics: Lessons for COVID-19
Art Therapy, 2020
To help art therapists work effectively with the realities of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), this special report brings together art therapists who have experience working in pandemics (Ebola, SARS), attending to health professionals, and building creative virtual communities. Art therapists can support recommended public health psychosocial guidelines by disseminating information, promoting expression and inspiration, challenging stigma, modulating media input, securing family connections, monitoring secondary traumatic stress, developing coping and resilience, maintaining relationships, and amplifying hope.
‘Art at Safe Homes’: A pioneer study among COVID-19 patients and their treatment team
Work
BACKGROUND: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected mental health all over the world. The resilience of people is heavily influenced by it. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the usage of artistic engagement to overcome stress or anxiety of COVID-19 patients and the treatment team. METHODS: The study was carried out at two safe homes for COVID-19 care in Kolkata, India. Different art and performance activities were implemented like drawing, theatre, poetry and music. All total 42 participants (24 patients and 18 treatment team) participated at the venture. RESULTS: The study found isolation and fear of death as the most affecting factors for stress, and anxiety. Drawing therapy proved to be most suitable form for COVID-19 patients followed by music, theatre and poetry 66.67%, 57.14%, 21.43% and 7.14% respectively. The group art created by the participants depicted hope and care for next generation. Issues related to disease were the major focus of participants than socio-political issues with regard to forum theatre session. Almost every patient expressed their relief from stress by crying signifying the release from a high alert tension. The experience was the first time for the participants and almost 90% of them stated to have such kind of artistic engagement in future also. CONCLUSION: This was perhaps the pioneer study of artistic engagement in COVID-19 patients as a tool to enhance resilience. From the humanitarian and scientific approach COVID-19 patients and treatment team should also come under the umbrella of Art Therapy.
Art as a catalyst for resilience: Women artists with life-threatening illness
2013
This phenomenological inquiry focused on the experiences of 12 professional women artists diagnosed with major medical illnesses, mostly cancer. Data from three in-depth interviews with each participant indicated that their beliefs, personal strengths, learned skills, and lived experiences were fundamental to their commitment to art as a way of life. The overarching question of whether long-term involvement in creative practices acted as a catalyst for resilience during and after treatments became the seminal exploration in this study. Data analysis used methods for qualitative research devised by Moustakas (1994), Giorgi (1985), and Forinash (2012), and a conversational approach in interviews suggested by Kavale and Brinkmann (2009). Findings suggest that uniquely learned artistic skills and an evolved creative process involving uncertainty, risk-taking, experimentation, flexibility, open-mindedness, determination, and perseverance served these artists well when they faced life-threatening illnesses. Their creative endeavors gave them a sense of direction, identity, and agency based on their commitment, beliefs, and intentions. These artists were proactive in their artwork and in dealing with diagnoses and treatment options even as their priorities and energies shifted to care and healing. Visual communication let them give voice to personal expression and acts of imagination that held essential purpose and meaning. The findings suggest that these artists had art practices that were life-affirming and that art-making for them was evidence of vitality. Although art-making changed during acute illness, all participants resumed art practices, with adjustments, during and after treatments. Most participants engaged in new or changed forms of expression. Art experiences ART AS A CATALYST 13 opened possibilities for renewal in health as well as in ill health. The study demonstrated that the creative process, accessed through art-making by these artists, can have a therapeutic effect, a placebo effect, with life resumed or at the end of life. This investigation suggests that physicians, clinicians, healthcare workers, and creative art therapists could engage and encourage their patients in creative endeavors that offer possible placebo effects while accompanying them through illness and assisting in ways of psychological healing that are age-old.