Arts practices in unreasonable doubt? Reflections on understandings of arts practices in healthcare contexts

Abstract

This article suggests that the discourse on arts and health encompass contemporary arts practices as an active and engaged analytical activity. Distinctions between arts therapy and arts practice are made to suggest that clinical evidence-based evaluation, while appropriate for arts therapy, is not appropriate for arts practice and in effect cast them in unreasonable doubt. Themes in current discourse on “arts” and “health” are broadly sketched to provide a context for discussion of arts practices. Approaches to knowledge validation in relation to each domain are discussed. These discourses are applied to the Irish healthcare context, offering a reading of three different art projects; it suggests a multiplicity of analyses beyond causal positive health gains. It is suggested that the social turn in medicine and the social turn in arts practices share some similar pre-occupations that warrant further attention.

Critical reflections on methodological challenge in arts and dementia evaluation and research

“…A word used in one field or discipline may have different implications in another. The lack of a clear distinction between -for example -what constitutes 'therapy' or 'activity' in both arts and research practice has been identified as contributing to charged debate in arts and health, even placing an 'unreasonable' burden of expectation on arts practice (Broderick, 2011).…”

maladjusted: Participatory theatre about human-centred care

“…But, as with other art forms if it is successful, the effects of the work will continue after the play. Evidence-based medicine is the contemporary dominant form of knowledge validation (Broderick, 2011) and Art-based research is just emerging as a counter movement to this approach. At the end of each performance, David Diamond addressed the audience and described the work as a circle that startsin the reality of workshops participants and the casts' lives .…”

Arts, health & wellbeing: reflections on a national seminar series and building a UK research network

“…The third seminar, in particular, sought to directly address the need for more theoretical nuance and sophistication in arts and health research to address not only causal relationships, but a deeper understanding of how arts practices function to promote wellbeing (Broderick, 2011). In order to carve out a distinctive intellectual place in an interdisciplinary academy, this seminar challenged researchers to engage further with philosophical reflection on purposes and process, as well as a concern with the quantification of outcomes.…”