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11th Mar 2014Posted in: Blog, Uncategorized
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On Art Therapy or Art Education? What About Just Plain Old Art?
The exhibition "Parle-moi d'amour" opened on Valentine's day, 2014. What follows is a review of that show and an analysis of the wonderful experience of being immersed in it. Particular emphasis will be placed on the work of art therapist Pascale Godbout. Her piece entitled "Nous" is reviewed as a metaphorical representation of the complex relationship between notions of art as therapy, mental health and issues-based community art education. As will be discussed further, these 3 notions are confluent in setting the tone of the exhibit and contextualizing the 128 pieces of art anchored in it.
It is impossible to talk about any community based art work without also presenting the context in which it is situated. Bersson suggests: "Only with contextual understanding and cultural literacy can art educators sufficiently emancipate themselves from acculturation and discover alternatives to prevailing conceptions of art and education" (1986, p.43). In many ways, the context is more important than the sum of its parts when it comes to an issue s based collection like this one as the significance of each piece is amplified by its membership in the whole.
The "Parle-moi d'amour" exhibit has been presented by the organization "Les Impatients" [1] since 1999 in various locations but has been situated primarily at the Wellington[2] center in the heart of Verdun for the last 3 years. This theme is of particular interest for me as an art therapist because it features the artwork of current and former mental health services consumers of the Douglas hospital and Les Impatients. On a personal note, I have a longstanding fascination with the Douglas hospital because it once housed 1200 patients as the preeminent mental health institution in Montreal, but also because it has a record of placing high value on the artistic creativity of its users, and happens to sit directly opposite my backyard.
As a multidisciplinary student of art education, with master's studies in art therapy, I have been wondering about the differences and similarities which exist between these two fields. A number of art therapists and art educators have written about the close and sometimes ambiguous relationship (Edwards, 1976, Kramer, 1980, 2002, Naumburg, 2001, St. John, 1986, D'Amico, 1943, Dunn-Snow & D'Amelio 2000, Dalke, 1984 ). While most authors make explicit the belief that the two professional scopes of practice overlap, some art therapists and educators alike have said to me that the differences are irreconcilable. Once, I too drew a line in the sand in my struggle to define art therapy as distinct from any other field. I believed those claiming emphatically that art history and the teaching of technique have no place in art therapy sessions or that an art educator must never cross the line into the realm of therapeutic art. Today, I believe these to be the positions of purists, more intent on the preservation of professional territory than with the cultivation of novel approaches to learning and healing. To be fair, paid positions doing what one loves to do in art, art education or art therapy professions do seem scarce. Yet I remain caution when attempting to define any art related field categorically because as Kramer poignantly asserts: "No new discovery or method is exempt from the menace of mechanization, perversion into its opposite...methods, developed to stimulate creative work, have been perverted into ways of circumventing and avoiding the creative act" (2001, p.7). With this in mind, let us proceed to a gallery walkthrough.
Could the scope of art education practice really be so immense as to include some therapeutic dimension? To answer this question, Ching-Chiu and Bertram find that: "...art plays a vital role at various levels in fostering youths' artistic engagements as a form of democratic practice" (2013, p. 338). Lee notes: "in the art classroom-where art, identity, and culture are inextricably linked-racially and culturally responsive teaching play a critical role in how teachers interact with students and ultimately how students themselves come to understand cultural diversity, social inclusion, and antiracist behaviours" (2012, p.48). Given that people coping with mental illness suffer from social exclusion and lack of democratic participation could art education be a point on the path to social justice? Taken a step further, could issues-based community art education be a form of social therapy? In line with this question, it appears that the "Parle-moi d'amour" exhibit situates itself within the context of social justice education which, according to Kraehe & Acuff focuses on: "...raising awareness of social issues and giving voice to the experiences of those on the margins of society" (2013, p. 302). I can hardly think of anyone further on the margins of society than those afflicted with mental illness. Is this exhibit their therapy? Is it ours?

School seems to keep us out of prison, though educational level does not seem to be as good a predictor of criminality as socio-economic status is. This infographic is chosen to illustrate how the lines between institutional education and incarceration might get blurred.
References
Bersson, R. (1986). Why Art Lacks Social Relevance: A contextual Analysis. In Art Education. 39(4). 41-45. Ching-Chiu, L & Bertram, C.B. (2013). Engaging Youth in Underserved Communities Through Digital- Mediated Arts Learning Experiences for Community Inquiry. Studies In Art Education, 54(4), 335- 348. Dalke, C. (1984). There are no Cows Here: Art and Special Education Together at Last. Art Education, 37(6), 6-9. D'Amico, V. (1943). Art Therapy in Education. The Bulletin of the Museum of Modern Art, 10(3). 9-12. DERBY, J. (2013). Nothing About Us Without Us: Art Education's Disservice to Disabled People. Studies In Art Education, 54(4), 376-380. Dunn-Snow, P., & D'amelio, G. (2000). How Art Teachers Can Enhance Artmaking as a Therapeutic Experience: Art Therapy and Art Education. Art Education, 53(3), 46-53. Edwards, M. (1976). Art Therapy and Art Education: Towards a Reconciliation. Studies in Art Education. 17(2), 63-66. Fiber Art (n.d). In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 18, 2014 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_art#Notable_fiber_artists Gaudelius, Y., Speirs, P. (2002). Introduction. In Gaudelius, Y., Speirs, P. (Eds), Contemporary Issues in Art Education. (pp.1-18). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Harlow, C. W. (2003). Education and correctional populations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. HICKS, L. E. (2013). Art Education: Thing or Device. Studies In Art Education, 54(2), 99-102. John, P.S. (1986). Art Education, Therapeutic Art and Art Therapy: Some Relationships. Art Education. 39(1). 14-16. Juster, F. T., & Beaton, A. E. (1974). on the relation between education and crime. Education, income, and human behavior (pp. 313-338). New York: McGraw-Hill. Kraehe, A., & Acuff, J. (2013). Theoretical Considerations for Art Education Research With and About "Underserved Populations".Studies In Art Education, 54(4), 294-309. Kramer, E. (1980). Art Therapy and Art Education: Overlapping Functions. Art Education, 33 (4) 16-17. Kramer, E. (2002). On quality in art and art therapy. American Journal Of Art Therapy, 40(4), 218-222. LAWTON, P., & LA PORTE, A. (2013). Beyond Traditional Art Education: Transformative Lifelong Learning in Community-Based Settings With Older Adults. Studies In Art Education, 54(4), 310-320. Lee, N. (2012). Culturally Responsive Teaching for 21st-Century Art Education: Examining Race in a Studio Art Experience. Art Education, 65(5), 48-53. Lochner, L. (2011), The Impacts of Education on Crime, Health and Mortality, and Civic Participation. (Policy brief 3). Retrieved from: http://economics.uwo.ca/cibc/cibc_docs/policybrief3.pdf. London, P. (1988). Art Therapy's Contribution to Art Education: Towards Meaning, Not Decoration. Art Education, 41(6), 44-48. Magsamen., S. H., & Battro, A. M. (2011). Understanding How the Arts Can Enhance Learning. Mind, Brain, and Education, 5(1), 1-2. Naumburg, M. (2001). Spontaneous art in education and psychotherapy. American Journal Of Art Therapy, 40(1), 46-64. Rosenfield, S., Phillips, J., & White, H. (2006). Gender, Race, and The Self In Mental Health and Crime. Social Problems, 53(2), 161-185. Tehrani, J. A., Brennan, P. A., Hodgins, S. S., & Mednick, S. A. (1998). Mental illness and criminal violence. Social Psychiatry And Psychiatric Epidemiology, 33(Suppl 1), S81-S85. doi:10.1007/s001270050214 Victor Hugo. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved February 18, 2014, from BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/v/victorhugo104893.html
[1] Read more about the mental health organization "Les Impatients" here: www.impatients.com
and here: http://impatients.ca/qui-sommes-nous/historique/
[2] Read more about the Wellington center here: http://www.douglas.qc.ca/page/wellington-centre
[3] The work I painted can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomartist/5242827406/in/photostream/. The viewer will notice how the metal clip holding the soldier's rucksack is similar to the clasp in Pascale's knit piece.
[4] Read more about fiber art on the Wikipedia page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_art#Notable_fiber_artists
[5] Read my post about art as therapy entitled: "Is Art Therapy?" here: http://www.tomartist.com/2013/06/23/is-art-therapy/
[6] Studio based art therapy and community based art therapy are used interchangeably throughout this text.