Art Practice Commons^™

Taking Student Artists And Audiences To The West Side: Exploring The Value Of Creative Adaptation In An Arts Context Through A Case Study Of “West Side Story”, Rebecca G. Bateson-Brown

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project focuses on the practical application and conceptual acceptance of deliberate creative adaptation within the purview of the performing arts and arts education. More specifically, it centers this conversation around stagings of the iconic musical West Side Story, as my role as a choreographer and arts educator is used to further explore, examine, and emphasize these topics through the documentation of my production planning process, choreographic creation, and ultimate execution of performance material for a local high school production of the show. As such, this project builds with greater specificity off of my previous investigations of “adaptation” as …

The People Who “Burn”: “Communication,” Unity, And Change In Belarusian Discourse On Public Creativity, Anton Dinerstein

Doctoral Dissertations

The main intellectual problem I address in this study is how everyday communication activates the relationship between creativity, conflict, and change. More specifically, I look at how the communication of creativity becomes a process of transformation, innovation, and change and how people are propelled to create through everyday communication practices in the face of conflict and opposition. To approach this problem, I use the case of communication in modern-day Belarus to show how creativity becomes a vehicle for and a source of new social and cultural routines among the independent grassroots communities and initiatives in Minsk. On one level, I …

Kofifi/Covfefe: How The Costumes Of "Sophiatown" Bring 1950s South Africa To Western Massachusetts In 2020, Emma Hollows

Masters Theses

This thesis paper reflects upon the costume design process taken by Emma Hollows to produce a realist production of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company’s musical Sophiatown at the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts in May 2020. Sophiatown follows a household forcibly removed from their homes by the Native Resettlement Act of 1954 amid apartheid in South Africa. The paper discusses her attempts as a costume designer to strike a balance between replicating history and making artistic changes for theatre, while always striving to create believable characters.

Critically And Creatively Engaging With Trauma-Informed Mental Health Research And Treatment Of Lgbtqia+ Communities As Expressive Arts Therapists: A Literature Review, Kelli Lavallee

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Expressive Arts Therapists are uniquely situated as both artists and mental health counselors working in psychological pedagogy rooted in systems of oppression. Given the arts-based approaches to the therapeutic relationship, it can be unethical to offer these approaches without acknowledgement of the ways in which the arts intersect with social justice, and justice is only viable if practitioners critically review the clinical mental health education they are consuming from the institutions they learn in, specifically trauma-informed mental health research assimilation and treatment approaches for Expressive Arts Therapists in training, practice, and education. A review of the literature in this paper …

Washing The River In Relation To Interpellation, Theatricality And Spectatorship, Patricia Miller

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Patricia Miller's Master of Fine Arts Thesis Paper

Master's Project, Patricia Miller

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Patricia Miller is an Inland Empire based artist, who was born and raised in San Bernardino, California. She creates abstract plywood sculptures that promote mental health awareness. Her work is an investigation of the unhealthy relationships that many people have with society, the fine art world, their environment, and themselves.

Kin(A)Esthetic Paper Play: A Community Engagement Project Offering A Therapeutic Experience By Exploring An Emergent Method Of Expressive Arts Therapy With Clinicians Who Studied Expressive Arts, Bed Hermin

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

For this community engagement project, I explored an emergent practice of Kin(a)esthetic Paper Play with expressive arts therapists. This practice aligns with Buddhist philosophy and practice in the West and its benefits can be explained through the theory of Embodied Simulation. The literature on Buddhism and Embodied Simulation highlights the positive benefits of abstract meditative processes done in groups. My goal was to explore the therapeutic elements of K(a)P within a community group setting. When elements of Kin(a)esthetic Paper Play were introduced to a group of alumni from Lesley’s Expressive Arts Therapy graduate program it was received well. I learned …

Intermodal Art Method To Explore Personal And Cultural Narratives, Zoe Boucher

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

In this capstone thesis, art-based research (ABR) is examined through a critical, intersectional perspective to explore how it can be used as a method to reveal areas that impact transference and countertransference and thus to support supervision and emerging clinical practice. This heuristic study explored the benefits of poetry and response art within the home setting of a black biracial, Guadeloupean American, female-identifying cisgender individual, 31 years of age. Through qualitative, arts-based research, data was collected in the form of blackout poetry, painting, and journaling. A thematic analysis of the visual and textual data sources revealed three themes: an intermodal …

Bridging The Gap: Relationship Building Through The Use Of Dance Movement Therapy With Older Adults With Dementia: Literature Review, Goni Rubel Zlotnik

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The purpose of this capstone thesis is to examine how the use of dance movement therapy (DMT) can be a beneficial intervention for relationship building when working with older adults with dementia. Studies have shown that dementia is a state where body and mind are in distress (Hill, 2009; Karkou & Meekums, 2017). Therefore, caring and understanding of dementia treatment is vital for maintaining relationships and developing new ones. Person-centered care (PCC) has been used in this thesis as a theoretical psychological framework to support relationship building with elders with dementia. Karkou and Meekums (2017) suggested that due to the …

Art Therapy, Mass Media And Self-Acceptance With Adolescents: A Literature Review, Samantha Leary

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This literature reviews provides a synopsis of art therapy its potential benefits in combating negative effects associated with social media and adolescents’ sense of self-acceptance. Using art therapy as a mode of self-expression is found to help negate negative effects of social media and provide adolescents with healthy tools to help them develop and grow. Social media provides a wealth of information that can be detrimental to the emotional growth of young adults. In this literature review lack of face to face connection, idealized beauty standards, instant gratification and social comparisons are correlated to depressive symptoms in adolescents. Through the …

Using Art To Mitigate Burnout For Those Working In Direct Care, Jessica E. Goodchild

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Through a critical review of the existing literature, this capstone thesis seeks to investigate the potential benefits and drawbacks to the integration of guided artistic practices within the workplace. The literature reviewed focused on both qualitative and quantitative studies of burnout and explored the professional benefits that art making can provide in mitigating burnout for those within a western culture working in the field of mental health and social services, particularly in the capacity of a direct care worker (DCW). Through the review of the literature a case can be made for the benefits of using visual art to engage …

Presence Through Expressive Arts And Buddhism, Akshita Desore

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

There is increasing research suggesting presence as the foundation of therapeutic work with clients and is becoming just as important a concept as theoretical orientation of therapists. This literature review focuses on understanding the skill of presence by looking at existing literature on the concept and suggests expressive arts and meditative practices as a tool to cultivate therapeutic presence. Using the Geller-Greenberg model of Therapeutic Presence as the foundation, I answer two questions in this thesis, what presence means conceptually and how therapists can achieve presence when working with clients. By its very nature, Expressive arts therapy with its focus …

Zentangles For Mental Health Awareness, Rachel Immel

Honors Projects

The world is starting to see the rise of a stress related epidemic. Finding time to balance the struggles of everyday life, like academics, finances, careers and relationships, while also maintaining personal mental health is becoming increasingly difficult. This is what prompted me to use my project as an opportunity to help people relieve stress and create a community through the use of art, especially during a time where social interaction has been severely limited due to COVID-19.

My project is a series of live-streamed Zentangle art classes I hosted personally that were open to the public through Zoom. Zentangle …

The Art Of Forgiveness: How The Arts Helped Facilitate Forgiveness, Darlene Kuehn

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This research explored how the arts can help facilitate the process of forgiveness using a diverse methods research design. The first part of the research was a qualitative phenomenological inquiry examining the experiences of eight people who identified as having worked through a substantial process of forgiving in which the arts was an informative part of their process. The second part involved arts-based research to further investigate how art helped facilitate the participants forgiveness process. The primary investigation of the inquiry was: How did involving art effect the participants’ process of forgiving, and, did art facilitate or enrich the forgiveness …

Modeling Disability: Softly Making The Invisible Visible, Libby Evan

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

“I am not asking for pity. I am telling you about my disability.” -Eli Clare

In the following Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis statement, you will not find someone overcoming their disability. You will not find a tale of inspiration. You will not find a cure for ableism. You simply will find an individual's experience of disability— my experience of disability.

My invisible disability puts the medical model and social model of disability in constant tension as I navigate everyday life living with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and severe arthritis. Both models seek to find blame for disability, whether in searching …

Dunidedcudigunadie, Lawrence Reid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The artist discusses his Master of Fine Arts exhibit, titled DUNIDEDCUDIGUNADIE. The exhibit is to be held at the Tipton Gallery in downtown Johnson City, TN, from April 2nd to April 10th, 2020. A live reception will be held the evening of April 3rd, featuring a performance with the work, titled Look at You!

The following thesis explores the artist’s formative years – investigating how childhood experiences combine with artistic and theoretical influences to inform his art-making process.

The Complexities Of Intimacy, Brie Henderson

Graduate School of Art Theses

Through my research I have discovered there are many complexities that exist within the topic of intimacy. Of these complexities, I chose to explore the topics attachment and codependency in my final series. Attachment and codependency are deeply rooted in psychology, poetry, and many artist’s practices. The relationship between poetry and my work has become deeply intertwined. I combine poetry with my work as a way to document my feelings and to inspire the titles for my paintings. Through a series of intimate watercolor paintings, I reference bodies, intimate interactions and the ambiguity within the two. This ambiguity asks viewers …

Can You See It?: Providing Visual Arts Access To Audiences With Visual Impairment And Blindness, Rowan A. Puig Davis

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

The Program, Aaron Douglas Estrada

Theses and Dissertations

In my work, I explore the engineering of identity and socioeconomics that are programed into Black and Brown communities. I refer to this as “The Program”. The Program validates, breaks, codes, and critiques the system that divided us. The Program is identifying with the struggle of growing up in a system that is programmed to see you fail. So if you get caught up in that system it’s a natural death within the program. But you can break and make your own program. If you stick to the program.

The paper's use of language is coded. Text has been written …