THE ROLE OF ART IN RELATION TO THERAPY

Beschreibung der Lehrveranstaltung

In this workshop participants will be invited to examine how art can play a role in the therapeutic environment that is distinct from the use of art as device in therapy. Participants will have the opportunity to work into material that is current in their own artistic practice and to explore and identify for themselves a methodology which could be employed in workshops with people in particular social contexts.

Day 1. Identifying personal themes;
Day 2. Addressing social contexts
Day 3. Dialogues and shared languages

Lecture: Art is not therapy

It will explore the origins, development and structure of a range of socially engaged arts projects in which I was involved throughout the 1990’s. The key elements in this work were influenced by a range of personal contexts and specific social conditions including AIDS activism, lesbian and gay and gender politics of the 80’s and 90’s. The experience of ‚coming out‘ gay, a critical influence upon the use of subject matter in my work, will be used to question assumptions about personal discovery in the art making process.