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Review: Art in Action: Expressive Arts Therapy and Social Change

January 14, 2013

This may explain why there is no reference to other similar works on the subject, such as my book Arts Approaches to Conflict (1996) and Art Therapy and Social Action (Kaplan 2007), although they do include the editors of Art Therapy and Political Violence (Kalmanowitz and Lloyd (2005).  Moreover the authors distance themselves from arts therapies, seeing them as too identified with the mental health system and professional credentials. They see expressive arts therapy as a different medium, offering psychosocial help in a broader range of contexts. These arguments also take place in the UK, but fortunately arts therapists and ‘arts in health’ practitioners have come to a positive mutual understanding in recent years.

The book is divided into three sections: principles, issues and projects – although I could not see much difference between the last two. The essays on principles include the ways in which the arts can offer something unique in many situations of conflict and hurt – described as ‘de-centering’, to remove the focus on the presenting issues and look at things in a radically different way. 

The chapters in the last two sections (just over half the book) then describe a wide variety of projects and interventions using the arts – visual art, writing, poetry, drama, music, dance or combinations of several of these. Most (but not all) of these chapters are illustrated with photographs of art works, or poems, or writings. Depending on the quality of the writing, some of these are very moving.

A wide range of contexts is covered, including:

These chapters show the way the arts can be used to engage a wide variety of groups. Many of the chapters show aspects of humanity that go far beyond goals and objectives. And the arts can achieve certain things that are difficult to arrive at in other ways.

My own Art & Conflict workshops have often demonstrated this: after a particular visual art exercise, someone may say ‘Ah, I see now – the conflict is in a completely different place from where I thought – and I can see what to do about it!’

Most of the chapters show how arts methods can be used to work towards healing after traumatic events – perhaps our next steps should be to put more effort into using the same methods to prevent such events before they happen?

It’s difficult to describe this book in a few words – please read it and be inspired!

References

Kalmanowitz, D. and Lloyd, B. (eds) (2005) Art Therapy and Political Violence. London & New York: Routledge.

Kaplan, F. (ed) (2007) Art Therapy and Social Action. London & Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Liebmann, M. (ed) (1996) Arts Approaches to Conflict. London & Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

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