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A Spectrum Of Experience: A Community Art Project To Build Empathy Through Identity Sharing In A Suburban High School, Allison Stansfield

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Having empathy for others is an important aspect of living within a healthy community. However, teaching empathy can be difficult. High school is a natural setting for learning and developing many social skills. If adolescents can learn to develop empathy at this age, they can carry it with them into their future communities. Research shows that story-telling and shared experiences have the potential to foster empathy. This paper describes a community-based art project within a suburban high school that was designed to use personal narrative and art-making as a way of developing a sense of empathy in adolescent-aged students. Students …