Participatory, art-based appreciative inquiry with artists labelled/with intellectual and developmental disabilities

People labelled/with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) participate in community-based studio programming across the United States, yet their experiences and preferences for studio programming are not well known. The goal of this research was to learn what artists in a community-based studio think is important about their studio and what they want to change in the future. Using art-based appreciative inquiry and online methods, the artists were prompted to talk and create artwork about ‘what is most important’ in the studio and ‘what we want for the future’. The artists reported that the most important aspects of the studio are the staff and their friends at the studio and the opportunity to make art that is motivated by their interests. The wishes expressed by the artists included increased opportunities to be social, to make more money, to have more community access and more choice and control in the studio.

Rethinking creative research methods in response to COVID-19: Creating a remote research kit

The ‘Sensing Spaces of Healthcare: Rethinking the NHS Hospital’ project involves working with National Health Service (NHS) staff, patients and visitors to explore their experiences of hospital environments. Over the course of the project, creative approaches centred on art-based and design-led practices are employed to research people’s experiences. Such approaches often involve working closely with participants during sessions. As COVID-19 infection control measures have affected in-person research, it has been necessary to develop and adopt alternative low-contact approaches. This article presents the development of a remote creative research kit designed to be used without a researcher/practitioner present. The kit has been developed through work with creative practitioners, hospital arts organizations, patient and public contributors and learning from public engagement events. The remote creative research kit has led to rethinking and reimagining the ways in which such approaches may be of benefit more broadly in healthcare settings.

A hospital’s collaborative arts in health approach to COVID-19

This note from the field outlines how an integrated arts in health department within a hospital created clinical and non-clinical art experiences for patients and providers during COVID-19. Working with a multi-disciplinary team, the Center for Performing Arts Medicine at Houston Methodist established creative arts therapy and arts integration programmes targeting patient and provider experiences during COVID-19. Emphasis is placed on how programmes respond to both physical health and emotional well-being through accessible, appropriate art experiences. This article outlines those strategies and highlights various entry points for arts experiences in a hospital experience during a pandemic.

Arts in Hospitals during COVID-19: Time to Reflect, hosted by CW+ (the charity for Chelsea & Westminster NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust), 22 January 2021, online

Review of: Arts in Hospitals during COVID-19: Time to Reflect, hosted by CW+ (the charity for Chelsea & Westminster NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust), 22 January 2021, online

Picturing the researcher: Using photovoice to document the research assistant experience during the COVID-19 pandemic

The article is a reflection by two graduate research assistants (GRAs) who experienced the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the in-person interactions through which qualitative researchers usually learn about human experiences. With in-person research curtailed, the authors were compelled to think creatively and find other ways to continue their research and develop meaning. The researchers reflected on their experiences as GRAs for the study ‘Thriving in Canada: Learning from the (photo) voices of women living on a low income engaged in action research to improve access to health and social services’. Taking advantage of pandemic-related study delays, the researchers explored the photovoice method in more depth and used photovoice to document their own lived experience as GRAs, and their learning. They practised self-reflexivity and worked to improve their visual-based photovoice facilitation skills. This illustrated essay is the story of the authors’ experiences over the past year working as GRAs during the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Freeing us from pandemic alienation: Tea-based online expressive arts therapy

This article creatively presents a framework of conducting expressive arts therapy online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to help people tap into the four modes of being through multimodal arts to respond to the alienation in each of them due to the pandemic. Tea, which has similarities with watercolour but is more natural and easily accessible, serves as the core art material in the creative process. This article includes experience of the participants who voluntarily joined a one-off online workshop, giving a clearer picture of the therapeutic process and changes. The relevance of tea to the four modes of being is discussed, and the ways in which the framework can be implemented are explored.

What is left of the studio, in the absence of a room to share?

This article builds on previous work exploring the essential relational experiences of risk, rupture and change that are possible for students and teachers who learn in an open studio setting. In response to the isolation that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic this article considers how the relational dynamics of the studio are translated into an online environment. The authors use artmaking to explore their experience of working alongside each other in this way, engaging their material knowing in an online learning environment. The findings reveal that just as the constructed physical space of an art studio is a dynamic container for social interaction and expression, an online space can act as a container for these transformative experiences. The article considers what elements of the studio remain in the absence of a room to share and in doing so is pertinent for art therapists and educators working across face-to-face and online environments.

Different media, same relationships: What the Iris Piano Trio learned from the COVID-19 pandemic

The Iris Music Project is a non-profit dedicated to reimagining residential and healthcare communities as spaces of creative exchange. By February 2020, our chamber music group, the Iris Piano Trio, had developed a model for music programming at Charles E. Smith Life Communities (CESLC) in Rockville, Maryland (United States), that emphasized collaborative relationships between professional musicians and community members. The COVID-19 pandemic severely disrupted the Trio’s work and tested its model. In this article, we describe how the Trio remained connected and relevant to CESLC residents by experimenting with virtual programmes that adapted our model to a digital setting. We argue that our prior relationships with residents and staff enabled us to impact their lives throughout the pandemic despite the isolation created by COVID-19 closures. The pandemic strained, but did not fundamentally change, the Trio’s ensemble-in-residence model, suggesting its potential as a generalized model in the field of music and health.

Whine and dust: Coping during the pandemic using companioning autoethnographic art-based research

As collaborators from different nationalities, genders, cultural backgrounds, occupations and age cohorts, in this article we present an account of our art-based research during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project employed art practice as a way to deal with the noxious effects of isolation on our mental health and well-being during the many prolonged lockdowns in Melbourne, Australia. With reference to Warren Lett’s concept of companioning, in our ongoing companioning dialogue through poetry and paintings, together with a final song, we explore our psychological struggles. This contribution can be read in several ways: as an example of our research into art practice, as an artistic companioning dialogue between two writers and friends trying to make sense of and survive isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and finally, as an offer, an invitation to explore art as a cathartic and coping process in a companioning process, which we have termed companioning autoethnography.

Social distancing without emotional distancing?1

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every aspect of society and no more so than in educational applications of theatre for children in schools. This article explores the complexities of what applied theatre/drama offer the young to think critically and develop empathetic human relationships crucial to sound mental health. The article’s authors reaffirm ways in which applied theatre/drama and TIE have contributed to healthy social development through contributions to the Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum. Cited are recent projects with compromised praxis in the face of the pandemic. Identified is a shift in educational priorities that are returning to traditional approaches in place of wider heuristic social education. Consequent moves to online teaching and imposition of social distancing has led to concerning levels of social distancing potentially impacting negatively on mental health of the young. However, applied theatre/drama disciplines play a particular role in facilitating emotional maturity through critical thinking.