Arts Engagement Research Articles

Productive arts engagement at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum and its health effects on the older Japanese population: results of a randomized controlled trial.

This randomized controlled trial aims to compare changes in mental and physical health in older Japanese community-dwellers who participated in a productive art-based activity at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum (intervention group) and in their counterparts, who did not participate in the intervention (control group). A total of 73 older community-dwellers living in Tokyo participated in a single-blind RCT in two parallel groups (intervention group versus control group). The intervention was 2 h of productive art-based activities per week. The weekly sessions were carried out at the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum over a 12-week period. The control group did not participate in any productive art-based activity over the study period. Well-being, quality of life and frailty were assessed before the first, and after the last, art-based activity. These outcomes were assessed with the same schedule in both groups. The intervention group saw a significant improvement in their quality of life (p < 0.044) and mixed results on their physical health (i.e., decreased frailty status) when compared to the control group. The comparison of changes in frailty scores between M0 and M3 showed improvement in the intervention group (p = 0.014), but when adjusted for baseline characteristics by linear regressions, revealed only a trend (p = 0.070). No conclusive effect was shown with well-being. This RCT showed mixed health effects of productive art engagement in older Japanese community-dwellers in Tokyo. Benefits were reported for quality of life and mixed effects were observed for frailty, while no significant effect was found for well-being.Clinical Trial Registration: Ethic committee of Shobi University, Tokyo (Japan), ref. A-2021-1; Clinical Trial Number NCT03679715.

Melting Memories: Footwear Drawn out of Ice

This visual essay presents drawings related to a research project that sought to develop a visual language that communicates the precarity of clothing items that have emerged from alpine glaciers in Europe. These artworks achieve a poetic effect that recalls the tensions and challenges of preserving these artifacts of glacial archaeology. This essay focuses on selected drawings of footwear from the exhibition Emergency! at Drawing Projects UK (November 10, 2022–February 4, 2023) and articulates how drawing was used as a form of touching to imaginatively translate the experience of encountering these items of footwear into artworks. The artworks offer an example of how artistic engagement with museum collections can generate a creative response to traces of the past and invite reflection on the future of our planet.

Augmented Species: Digitale Ökofiktionen als Strategie künstlerischen Engagements

Abstract The essay aims to explore how eco-fiction unfolds speculative futures of potential worlds in digital images and how this acts as a strategy of artistic engagement, following György Kepes's demand for “ecological consciousness.” Using Tamiko Thiel, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Sofia Crespo and Feileacan McCormick as well as and Sommerer and Mignonneau as examples, the article shows how artists are turning away from the seemingly dystopian narrative of the Anthropocene in favor of positive and playful narratives via digital eco-fiction. Their works formulate a claim of artistic commitment which is to be methodically and historically reflected and critically questioned with regard to the seductive branching off into parallel illusory worlds. Opposed to the immediacy and promise of authenticity of “real nature,” their programmed, fabulated imaginary worlds lead to an overlapping of different realities.

Valuing embodiment: insights from dance practice among people living with dementia.

There is a growing appreciation for the ability of person-centered arts-based approaches to extend multiple domains of brain health of people living with dementia. Dance is a multi-modal artistic engagement which has positive impacts on cognition, mobility and the emotional and social aspects of brain health. Although research into multiple domains of brain health among older adults and people living with dementia is promising, several gaps remain, specifically in understanding the benefits of co-creative and improvisational dance practices. Collaborative research between dancers, researchers, people living with dementia and care partners is needed to design and evaluate future research on dance and to determine relevance and usability. Furthermore, the respective praxes and experience of researchers, dance artists and people living with dementia contribute distinctly and uniquely to the identification and the assignment of value to dance in the context of the lives of people living with dementia. In this manuscript the author, a community-based dance artist, creative aging advocate and Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, discusses current challenges and gaps in the understanding of the value of dance for and with people living with dementia and how transdisciplinary collaboration between neuroscientists, dance artists and people living with dementia can advance collective comprehension and implementation of dance practice.

Participation in arts and culture among individuals with serious mental illnesses and its relationship to quality of life and recovery.

Engagement in arts and cultural activities is valued and yields positive outcomes but may be understudied in populations with serious mental illness (SMI). Our aims are to evaluate the extent to which individuals with SMI deem participation areas related to arts and culture (e.g., going to a theater) to be important, and if important, how often they are being done and if it is enough in comparison to a nonSMI sample. We conducted analyses using a sample of 1,120 individuals with SMI from nine research studies between 2008 and 2016 and a sample of 300 individuals without SMI that were part of the Truven Health Analytics PULSE survey. All participants completed a survey containing questions related community participation. Analyses were conducted using independent samples t tests, followed by analysis of variances, and chi-square tests. The results indicate that adults with SMI are as, or more interested in arts and cultural activities as adults in the general population, but do not participate in those areas as much as they would like in comparison. We also found that, as with the general population, participation in these areas is positively associated with quality of life and to a lesser degree, recovery. Engagement in arts and culture activities may be an overlooked compared to other areas of participation, such as employment. Psychiatric rehabilitation practitioners may need to pay greater attention to areas related to art appreciation, rather than just art production. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Going deep: Excavation, collaboration and imagination at the Kola Superdeep Borehole

On the Kola Peninsula in the Russian Arctic lies an innocuous iron disc about the size of a dinner plate. If one were to prise this disc open, they would find the remains of the world’s deepest vertical hole. Reaching a depth of over 12 kilometres, the Kola Superdeep Borehole was drilled in the pursuit of excavating scientific knowledges for a better understanding of the Earth’s crust. Whilst the borehole produced some important findings, and hosted an international delegation of researchers, once the Soviet Union collapsed, it fell into disrepair. Since its closure, the Kola Superdeep has become lost to history, but its existence as a ruin has generated new artistic engagements with the underground. This article uses the geological notion of discontinuity – a structural break in the rock – to imagine how discontinuity might be found within the borehole itself. It does this by identifying three access points: excavation through drilling and coring, collaboration through cross-border scientific work, and imagination through art and the weird. By resisting the notion that the subterranean can be objectively known through science, I reveal how the Kola Superdeep produces other relations, knowledges, and ways of sensing the subterranean.

Community arts engagement supports perceptions of personal growth in older adults

PurposeThe effects of arts engagement on older adults have been well-documented. However, the ways older adults overcome common situational and dispositional barriers to enhance personal growth and well-being are less known. MethodsFifty-six community dwelling older adults (71.3 ± 4.6 years) took part in dance, music, or a control workshop two times/week for ten weeks. Participants' personal growth was examined through focus groups and surveys in this mixed-methods study. ResultsFocus group and survey results revealed participants experienced personal growth through engaging in the dance and music arms of the experiment. Participants, especially those in arts workshops, described personal growth experiences aligning with four themes: increased social connections, developed new skills, utilized a growth mindset, and used creativity to overcome situational and dispositional barriers to participation. The barriers included musculoskeletal challenges, hearing impairments, and difficulty retaining new information. ConclusionsThe study yielded high adherence and retention rates, and participants reported increased engagement within their communities. Our observations provide avenues for future practitioners and facilitators to create programming that empowers older adults and utilizes participants' ongoing feedback to support access, inclusion, and sense of community.

Exploring barriers to and drivers of participatory arts engagement in early adolescence.

Exploring barriers to and drivers of participatory arts engagement in early adolescence.

Arts Engagement as a Health Behavior: An Opportunity to Address Mental Health Inequities.

The significance of mental health inequities globally is illustrated by higher rates of anxiety and depression amongst racial and ethnic minority populations as well as individuals of lower socioeconomic status. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these pre-existing mental health inequities. With rising mental health concerns, arts engagement offers an accessible, equitable opportunity to combat mental health inequities and impact upstream determinants of health. As the field of public health continues to shift its focus toward social ecological strategies, the social ecological model of health offers an approach that prioritizes social and structural determinants of health. To capture the impacts of arts engagement, this paper creates an applied social ecological model of health while aiming to advocate that engaging in the arts is a protective and rehabilitative behavior for mental health.

Critical perspectives on Arts on Prescription.

The positive outcomes of engaging in the arts are increasingly reported in the research literature, supporting the use of the arts to enhance individual and community health and wellbeing. However, little attention is given to the less positive aspects of arts engagement. In some countries, healthcare practitioners and link workers can refer service-users experiencing mental health issues to social interventions such as Arts on Prescription (AoP) programmes. This critical review identifies problematic issues across such social prescriptions and AoP, including failures in arts and health projects, participants' negative experiences, and an absence of ethical guidelines for arts and health practice. Furthermore, it is evident that there is a lack of awareness and knowledge within healthcare systems, leading to inappropriate referrals, failure to take account of individual preferences, and a lack of communication between the third sector and healthcare services. Significantly, it is also unclear who holds the health responsibility for AoP participants. This article raises more questions than it answers, but for AoP to be effectively embedded in healthcare practice, the issues highlighted need to be addressed in order to safeguard participants and support the effective implementation of programmes more widely.

Transformative youth development through heritage projects: connecting political, creative, and cultural capabilities

ABSTRACT This article draws on our continuous artistic engagement with Tonga youth in Zimbabwe over the last four years and offers a critical analysis of their transformation. We use the intersecting concepts of political and cultural capabilities to argue how arts-based participation in civic spaces has enabled them to shift the power balances, fostering them as epistemic agents and change-makers. Their journey across three arts and heritage workshops showcases that the longitudinal collaborations and social networks developed and built on one another, creating a thick interrelational embodied process of initiating political advocacy and re-creating different and multiple reinterpretations of their cultural heritage. The paper demonstrates the possibilities of envisaging and realising alternative livelihoods amidst the struggles exacerbated by horizontal and vertical inequalities, precarity, political apathy and poverty and highlights the importance of identifying relevant, context-sensitive, and engaging approaches for transformative development and legacy.

Research of the engagement of Russian folk art and crafts organizations in the development of tourism.

Research of the engagement of Russian folk art and crafts organizations in the development of tourism.

Affective and emotional experiences in arts-based service-learning environments

Dewey (1938) once wrote that the most effective forms of learning connect intellectual processes with emotion, which is able to inspire curiosity and excite the learner. This paper adds to the body of research that attests to the transformative role of affect in teacher education, which is able to be cultivated through arts-based service-learning experiences. Pre-service teachers at two universities in Sydney, Australia were placed in service-learning settings that were based around participatory experiences in drama and storytelling, music, dance or visual art. The pre-service teachers’ reflections on the placement revealed a transformative experience which combined emotional learning with critical analysis of social justice issues as they relate to education. As part of their placement, they experienced arts engagement that utilised affect and emotion as a transformative pedagogy. They broadened their understanding of the role of teachers, both in an institution and in society. These emerging understandings led them to find voice as advocates, investigate arts education and community projects as alternative career paths and re-evaluate their own perceptions of quality teaching. Some participants continued engaging with the community arts projects after the placement had concluded, and others became advocates for the arts in education and society. Finally, they adopted a critical stance on social justice issues, and shed light on the ways that arts learning service-learning placements can become deeper engagements, leading to sustainable benefits for all parties. Keywords: affect, emotion, arts education, education, creativity

Psychological Recreation as Part of Art Tourism

The purpose of the article is the research of psychological recreation within the art tourism system. The methodology of the research is based on methods of scientific cognition and system analysis (deduction, induction, analysis, and synthesis). Scientific novelty of the results lies in detection and analysis of the factors facilitating psychological recreation by means of art tourism services. Conclusions. Difficult transformations characterising the current situation in Ukraine such as war, loss of family members, forced migration, property destruction demand psychological resistance. Every person reacts to such challenges and finds ways for life balance recovery individually. It is very difficult to restore emotional balance and strength alone during the war, so organised leisure and touristic activities must provide the conditions for personality recovery. Professionally planned and balanced art tours contribute to full-fledged rest and provide therapeutic effect. Considered route selection, combination of open-air events and visiting cultural and art facilities, engagement of psychologists and artists are the essential parts of art tourism providing unique conditions for recreation. The art therapeutic practices employment facilitates harmonisation of personality, impacts mental health recovery, contributes to crisis solutions providing conditions for full-fledged psychological recovery.&#x0D; Key words: rest, leisure, recreation, psychological recreation, tourism, art tourism, art therapy.

Artistic Value of Juan Luna’s Spoliarium

This paper discussed the art appreciation technique using Jerrold Levinson’s artistic value in arriving at the importance of aesthetic experience in artwork. Levinson claimed that artistic value covers aesthetic value and achievement value, specifically in analyzing Juan Luna’s Spoliarium, which is considered the largest painting in the Philippines and is proclaimed as a national heritage. This paper argued that art should have aesthetic engagement from the viewer’s point of view which would lead them to discover its artistic value. Thus, this paper used the contextualizing technique since it augments and strengthens artistic engagement.

Association of Arts Event Attendance With Cognitive Function Among Older Adults Enrolled in the Health and Retirement Study.

Among the cognitively impaired, arts engagement is associated with improved neurocognitive symptoms. Less is known about arts engagement as a potentially modifiable lifestyle factor to prevent or slow cognitive decline. Our aim was to evaluate the association between arts event attendance and cognition. We used data from the 2014 and 2016 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to evaluate the association between arts event attendance and cognition using multivariable linear regressions. Arts event attendance in 2014 was our exposure of interest and included visiting an art museum or art gallery; attending an arts or crafts fair; attending a live performance (concert, play, or reading); and/or going to a movie theater. Cognitive function in 2016 measured on a 27-point scale by the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status was our main outcome of interest. Of the 1,149 participants included in the final analysis, 70.7% attended an arts event. The mean baseline cognitive score was higher among those who attended art events (16.8 [standard deviation {SD}, ±3.8] vs 13.8 [SD, ±5.0]; p < .001). In our multivariable regressions, those who attended arts events in 2014 exhibited higher cognitive scores in 2016 after controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, health, and baseline cognitive covariates (β, 1.07 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.50-1.64]; p < .001). This association was primarily observed in those with lower baseline cognitive function (β, 1.19 [95% CI, 0.33-2.06]; p = .008). Arts event attendance may be associated with better cognitive function. Given concerns for residual confounding and reverse causality, this association warrants further study.

The use of social media art challenges to encourage arts engagement for mental wellbeing in the general population.

OPINION article Front. Psychol., 08 March 2023Sec. Health Psychology Volume 14 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1113280

Blended online and face-to-face art therapy

This article focuses on a blended art-based practice that uses a combination of face-to-face, online, mobile and e-mail text-based methods. Blended art therapy alternates between digital and face-to-face formats complementing each other allowing clients to become autonomous and adapt to changing life circumstances. The approach encourages clients to take an active role in the distant treatment while undertaking continuous home art engagement tasks in between sessions. Switching between different digital, virtual and terrestrial formats will be described in this article. The outcomes discussed indicate certain client groups may benefit from a blended method approach. Attention will be given to the experiences of sensory perception, intimacy and relational proximity, during the virtual phases of the work. This article will also highlight observations in relation to the ways in which attachment dynamics have been identified and worked with in the face-to-face phase of therapy.

Art Engagement and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: Evidence From the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

Objectives: To examine the prospective association between art engagement and the risk of type 2 diabetes. Methods: Adults aged ≥50 from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing were asked about the frequency of art engagement, including going to the cinema, the art gallery or museum, and the theatre, a concert, or the opera. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to examine the risk of type 2 diabetes associated with art engagement. Results: During a median follow-up of 12.2years, we identified 350 cases of type 2 diabetes from 4,064 participants through interviews. After multivariable adjustment, compared with people who never went to the cinema, those going to the cinema frequently had a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes (HR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.44-0.86). After further adjustment for socioeconomic factors, the association was slightly attenuated but remained statistically significant (HR = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.46-0.92). Similar results were found for going to the theatre, a concert, or the opera. Conclusion: Frequent art engagement may be associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes, which was independent of individuals' socioeconomic factors.

Letters to the Editor and Other Comment

Abstract “Letters to the Editor and Other Comments” is a selection of comments the artist Morgan Fisher made on Facebook during Trump's presidency. Most were copies of letters he had sent to various departments at the New York Times criticizing its coverage of the president. They are “a record,” writes George Baker, “of an artist's engagement with a moment, one through which we have evidently still not passed. The practice … was almost daily, more or less constant, an insistent and repeated holding of the public sphere to account, perhaps even a willing of it into existence.”