Art Therapy at the Intersection of Craft and Activism
Throughout history, women have used craft to express themselves, to connect with others, and even to resist social and political oppression. Many of these goals align closely with the practices of art therapists who intend for their work to be emancipatory, yet craftivism (the intersection of craft and activism) hasn't been studied by art therapists until recently. Craft has therapeutic properties related to materials and methods, how it builds community through participation, and how it has been used to resist social and political oppression. Additionally, activism itself may assist individuals therapeutically in promoting emancipatory processes for individual and community growth, and allowing participants to address issues they identify from within the environments in which those issues take place. The presenter will provide an example of craft activism in an art therapy context by describing a participatory action research project she facilitated to identify the therapeutic impacts when art therapy participants used craftivism to name, explore, and address the issues of gentrification and displacement impacting their community. This project used arts-based research that took physical form through the creation of a collaborative quilt and yielded emergent impacts on individual, group, and community levels that can inform art therapy practice.
