Social functions of art: Educational, clinical, social and cultural settings. Trying a new methodology

Abstract

The fruit of the work of our research group, set up ten years ago at the Faculty of Education of the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, this article will present a review on how art can help and empower children and adults at risk of exclusion in different settings. We have been working from an intercultural, gender-equity and social inclusion perspective, introducing methods of art therapy practice. From this standpoint, we will show how our group has developed a methodology that can be validated in several domains. We will show the foundations of our proposals, and will present experiences in educational and social areas, showing how we can work on gender and interculturality, in clinical areas, where we have been working with art therapy and empowerment, and in cultural areas, where we show, from a new museological perspective, how it is possible to reconstruct new narratives that help marginalized groups to become stronger, and that transform museums into social agents for change.