Sacred Edge-Art for Wellbeing 2016 opening talk -Lara Bardsley

Culture and health: a wider horizon, 2015

THE FIELD OF ARTS AND HEALTH is part of the broader field of Culture and Health. Its orientation is practical and methodological and it translates and examines the idea that the arts can have a healing effect and promote well-being. ‘The arts’ is understood here in the plural and the designation, therefore, includes not only the visual arts but other aesthetic forms such as music, drama, dance, literature, theatre, architecture and sculpture. In the literature, it is consistently described as multifaceted in terms of the research disciplines, practical programmes and concrete activities that are included, as well as their aims and focus. What unites the varied programmes and activities is the interest in the significance of the arts to health and well-being. This chapter is an analytical introduction to the Arts and Health field and is not an exhaustive or systematic overview. The hope is that the chapter will engage and intrigue and lead the reader to explore further, for example via the extensive reference list. We also present a few concepts that can create understanding for the field – beyond the isolated examples that we discuss. The chapter is divided into three sections, which gradually elevate the analytical level. In the first, ‘The arts as the health-promoting link between body and mind’, we present examples of how people in the Arts and Health field justify their activities, because these seem to embrace a similar fundamental view on art as a remedy vis-à-vis the biomedical division of human beings into body and mind. The health-promoting effect of the arts is thus the focus of attention, but precisely what kind of projects this results in varies. In the second section of the chapter, ‘From spiritual inspiration to measurable health outcomes’, we present a model, the Arts and Health Diamond, which illustrates the various aims in relation to which Arts and Health projects are usually designed. This illustrates how the field encompasses projects that mainly focus on individuals or social interaction within and between groups, that certain projects take health-promoting potential as their point of departure, while others work as a complement to the traditional healing approaches of medicine. The chapter ends with the section ‘Arts and Health between science and society’, in which we analyse a few fundamental questions about the nature of science, art and social benefit. Arts and Health may be seen as incorporated in a multifaceted ‘boundary project’ in which the boundaries of good science and art are negotiated. This boundary project has bearing far beyond the field of Arts and Health.

British Medical Journal, 2018

The time has come for the line between literature and science, a purely arbitrary line, to be erased." William Burroughs, US writer and visual artist, cited by Andrew Lees in Mentored by a Madman 1 At first sight, the world of medicine and the world of art and culture could not be more different. Medicine is, almost by definition, rather conservative-just think of the ancient adage primum non nocere (first, do no harm)-and its profession is bound by regulation and guidelines. In contrast, art and culture are characterised by creativity, imagination, and liberal thinking, with little formal supervision.

International Journal for Social and Community Agendas in the Arts

Wellbeing is commonly used to describe a person’s mental, physical, emotional and affective states of wellbeing but still often neglects the cultural and spiritual context of anindividual’s sense of wellbeing. This study uses data from sixty women’s stories and artworks exhibited at The 2009 Women’s Room Ancestral Connections Exhibitionexamining how approaches to art making influenced cultural and spiritual wellbeing infive groups affiliated with The Women’s Room. Arts based narrative analysis, in-depthinterviews and ethnographic observation were used to determine women’s approaches toart making and a new arts analysis tool called The SPICES framework was developed inthe course of research as there were no suitable frameworks to analyse the cultural and spiritual intent of stories and artworks. The study found that women primarily used threeapproaches to making their art being 1) Spiritual approach, 2) Intuitive Channeled approach and 3) Expressive Symbolic approach (SPICES framework). These findingssuggest that making art using a SPICES approach enabled a creative agency for theexpression of cultural and spiritual beliefs, a communicative action strategy which bothchallenged dominant cultural conceptions of societal roles, and assisted women to copewith the challenges of everyday life. The SPICES approach will facilitate deepened understandings of transpersonal art produced in community art contexts, art therapy or cultural arts practice. Implications for policy makers, practitioners and researcherssuggests the need to develop more sophisticated understandings of the cultural and spiritual meanings behind the art being made in diverse community settings as this willshed light on how cultural beliefs and practices influence health and wellbeing, leading to better understandings of client community needs and perspectives.

There is an increasing social demand for innovative, pragmatic solutions to the public health and social care crisis, as highlighted by the NHS in their ‘Five Year Forward View’ (2014), and for ways to ease the disparity between the supply and demand of healthcare provision. The primary challenge to the health care crisis is public funding, followed by an ageing population with a prevalence of long-term physical and mental health conditions that aren’t curable in any obvious medical way (APPGAHW 2017: 11). As Lord Nigel Crisp (co-chair of the APPGGH and former CE of the NHS) wrote in 2016, we need to see 'the transformation of the health and care system from a hospital-centred and illness-based system to a person-centred and health-based system’ (Crisp et al 2016: 2). In recent years, the use of cultural interventions (participatory arts activity, arts-on-prescription, community art, music/art therapy) has risen to prominence as a potential means of addressing some of these aims, but despite growing fields of practice, theory, evidence and research, these initiatives are not yet being fully recognized for their efficacy by central government or commissioning bodies. This paper will explore the concept of value in the arts and its relation to the development of arts and health activity in the UK. Through literature review we will explore how the cultural value debate grew, and how it now manifests itself in the burgeoning arts in health ‘movement’, and identify the challenges imposed upon practitioners that stifle progress in the sector and prevent cultural interventions from reaching mainstream acknowledgement as an antecedent to the detrimental ‘social determinants of health’ (APPGAHW 2017: 10). There is a vast literature base dedicated to the topic of value and social impacts in the arts sector, and it has been an ongoing point of contention between artists, academics, commissioners, government and all other stakeholders of the arts for many years. We will explore some of these debates in the first section of this paper to articulate the complexities of the topic, before then honing our attention to cultural health intervention.

2017

Javier Saavedra1, Elvira Pérez-Vallejo2, Alicia Español1, Samuel Arias-Sánchez1, Marina Calderón-García1, María Cabillas Romero3& Paul Crawford2 1Universidad de Sevilla 2The University of Nottingham 3Universidad Pablo de Olavide [email protected] A few years ago during the restoration of the Chiaramonte Palace in Sicily (currently used by the University of Palermo), drawings and epigrams were discovered on the basement walls of some prison cells in. These drawings were studied systematically and it was discovered that these artistic expressions were made by the prisoners of the Spanish Inquisition during the 17th and 18th centuries. The prisoners, isolated and tortured, expressed their prayers, rage, fears and memories through poetry, paintings and pieces of text on surrounding walls. The evidence found also suggests that some artistic materials and tools for painting were supplied by the prison officers. There are numerous examples of the application of creative practices as a mediu...

This thesis documents the evolving inner state of the artist as he progresses in his understanding of the role art plays in the process of healing. In addition to original pen and ink drawings, oil paintings and etchings, different traditions and conditions that relate to art and healing will be examined. Efficacy of different methods of healing are explored such as: alchemy in art, mandalas, the use of masks for healing, energy healing as relates to artwork such as icons, as well as the role of landscapes and gardens in healing. The original artwork progresses from the general to the specific (personal), ending in exploring the body itself, vis a vis energy and the “Green Man.” Text and illustrations are interwoven

There has long been a synergy between art and the body - its wellbeing or otherwise. From the 35,000 year old Venus of Hohle Fels, through Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic anatomical drawings, to Australian artist Stellarc’s growth of an ear on his own arm, art has explored both what is and what could be in our bodies. Focussing particularly on health, contemporary artistic works have explored the meaning of illness. One such example was The Lion’s Face1, an opera developed in the UK that showed the experience of Alzheimer’s from the perspective of both the patient and the care environment. Addressing mental health from a completely different perspective, curator Cao Xun’s exhibition of outsider art in the public space of a Shanghai mall was aimed at breaking down barriers of stigma around mental health in China. In collaboration with tuberculosis (TB) researchers from the Modernising Medical Microbiology2 project at the University of Oxford, UK, artist Anna Dumitriu created a moving and evocative solo exhibition. Dumitriu used TB bacteria rendered safe by autoclaving to enrich materials that were then displayed in a gallery alongside objects such as public health posters and a TB spittoon. Colombian born and Japan-based artist Juan M. Castro used more experimental media to interrogate the boundaries of the human form, drawing on biomedical techniques to isolate cell-scale processes such as the production of fats to form artificial membranes. In terms of public engagement, these projects serve more in terms of their communicative power than in bringing communities into the creative process. Arts projects that involve the community can take multiple forms, however, from the more traditional to subversive. The University of Florida’s AIM for Africa3 programme takes the route of creating exchange between artists, medical researchers, care-givers, and communities to enhance medical experiences. The programme is also the home of research into the arts in medicine, and exposes students training in medicine and arts to new paradigms. Engaging deeply with a community to create the work, a collaboration between Indonesian-born artist and filmmaker Virlani Hallberg and Taiwanese psychoanalyst Leon Tan looked at healing practices. Originally for the Taipei Biennale 2012, Receding Triangle Square sensitively explored mental health in relation to changing political landscapes and traditions in Taiwan, exposed through interviews with rural community members. Engaging the public with health research is fundamentally important. From hygiene and sanitation to drug adherence, exchange between health researchers and the public can improve wellbeing for individuals and communities, and be a valuable source of insight for researchers. A key point that will be explored in this report is the variation along the scale upon which this engagement can take place - from engagement as a means of delivering a message from health researchers to the community, to engagement as a sincere two-way discourse. As we shall see, art can be found all along this spectrum, and the appropriateness of combining art, health research and engagement in different proportions must be determined on a case by case basis.

This paper will consider the role of the arts in a hospital context through an investigation of their aesthetic, psychological, affective and physical effects. It may be useful as an introduction to provide a summary of the context in which the arts for health movement operates through an investigation of changes taking place in both the art world and the healing environment. I am writing from the viewpoint of someone more involved with art theory than art practice, and with the visual rather than the other arts, so if what I say is skewed towards the visual arts, then it is because this is what I know best.

Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal, 2000

Abstract “All of us have stories, places where we come from that we can explore, celebrate and share. These are our roots. These roots, when carefully nourished, can strengthen our sense of self and help to inform us and each other of who we are and can bring us together in the most enriching ways. Taking this journey of discovery, dealing with this year's theme, Routes to Community, Roots of Community, has not been easy. There are places of hurt, shame, and injustice that surfaced. It takes courage and support of community to step out and be surprised by the insights that can heal those areas that you thought you could never enter.”