Activities per year
Abstract
This chapter originates from an artist residency establishing outdoor art studios within a primary school in Ireland. It is written from the perspective of an art therapy educator (the author) collaborating with an art therapy trainee in her practicum within an inner-city Dublin primary school. The project was implemented with a small focus group of four primary school students (girls aged 10-11 years old) that acted as an artist collective. The purpose of the focus group was to explore the “art of walking” and to interact with the art of the neighborhood (graffiti) to facilitate place attachment, environmental creativity, and an awareness of the school’s physical environment. The focus group also included the school principal and accompanying teachers. I also occupied the role of artist in the landscape extending the art therapy practicum outdoors into the school’s environs.
This project was an opportunity to engage with the characteristics of young people’s everyday lives as citizens and cultural producers both inside and outside of school and to recontextualise health in terms of living in alignment with one’s home terrain. I will describe the concepts that informed this project as a design for arts and health and art therapy which ventured outside school boundaries into public thoroughfares characterized by co-production. Public art of the commonplace (the creativity within shared spaces in the everyday) engages through originality, skill, and vernacular narrative (Riggle, 2010). The following proposal encourages an alliance between a primary school and its public surroundings bestowing contributions to learning about identity-in-context and life outside of school.
This project was an opportunity to engage with the characteristics of young people’s everyday lives as citizens and cultural producers both inside and outside of school and to recontextualise health in terms of living in alignment with one’s home terrain. I will describe the concepts that informed this project as a design for arts and health and art therapy which ventured outside school boundaries into public thoroughfares characterized by co-production. Public art of the commonplace (the creativity within shared spaces in the everyday) engages through originality, skill, and vernacular narrative (Riggle, 2010). The following proposal encourages an alliance between a primary school and its public surroundings bestowing contributions to learning about identity-in-context and life outside of school.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Bridging the Creative Arts Therapies and Arts and Health |
Subtitle of host publication | Toward Inspirational Practice |
Editors | Donna Betts, Val Huet |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Jessica Kingsley Publishers |
Chapter | 8 |
Pages | 155-175 |
Number of pages | 20 |
ISBN (Print) | 978 1 78775 722 6 |
Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 30 Sept 2022 |
Keywords
- Art Therapy
- Arts and Health
- Community Art
- Art and Education
- The Art of Walking
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Studios of Life: Outsider Art at School'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.-
World Art Therapy Conference
Whitaker, P. (Speaker)
10 Feb 2024Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
-
Bridging the Creative Arts Therapies and Arts and Health: Experiential Webinar and Book Launch
Whitaker, P. (Speaker)
14 Jun 2023Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
File -
ESRC Festival of Social Science, The Walking Studio—Drawing with Words
Whitaker, P. (Organiser)
11 Nov 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Organising a conference, workshop, ...
-
The Walking Studio: Integrating Art Therapy with Nature Based Practices
Whitaker, P., Shaw, N. & Winkel, M., 11 May 2022, Virtual Art Therapy: Research and Practice . Winkel, M. (ed.). 1 ed. New York: Routledge, p. 150-167 18 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
-
The Art of Walking: Composing Landmarks, Performing Territory
Whitaker, P., 19 Feb 2021, Found Objects in Art Therapy : Materials and Process . Wong , D. & Lay, R. (eds.). London : Jessica Kingsley Publishers, p. 39 59 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
-
Habitats of Composition: The Nature of the Commons
Whitaker, P., 24 Nov 2020, In: Ecopoiesis. 2, 1Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile