“Behind each beautiful painting is a child longing to be free”: Deep visual listening and children’s art during times of crisis

Abstract

“Deep visual listening and children’s art during times of crisis” explores a way to understand children’s art created amidst crisis as well as the meanings we can discern from it through the lens of the “Uncaged Art Tornillo Detention Center” exhibit. In 2018, the U.S. government opened a detention center to hold youth who either crossed the border by themselves or were separated from their families through Trump’s Zero Tolerance policy. The youth were from Central America and came seeking asylum. Fleeing profound poverty and violence, they came to save their lives. To deter asylum-seekers through a series of cruel policies, the United States detained the youth in militarized camps where they were under constant surveillance. They did not know when or if they would be released and experienced depression and trauma. An art project at the detention center resulted in their creating approximately 400 pieces, of which 30 survived. “Uncaged Art” exhibited these works in 2019. This article answers the question “What can we learn about the children, the anonymous artists who created the works, through visual listening?” Visual listening is a process that involves all our senses. Listening requires conscious action, unlike hearing which is automatic and is one of the first senses we develop while still in our mother’s womb. This methodology allows us to engage with children’s art in times of crisis more profoundly than simply seeing the artwork. There are two parts to this practice: deep listening and visual listening. Combined, they provide a powerful way to listen to the stories, the histories, the memories, and the emotions embodied by the art and brought to life by our reflections and understanding

A Pattern of Tolerance Values Transformation by Parents Towards Early Childhood

“…When both parents have different religious differences, then this becomes common in the Cigugur community. This is in accordance with the results of research conducted by Chávez Leyva (2021) which says that differences in family members need to be taught to their children, so that they are able to tolerate. When children are able to accept differences, especially religious differences, the process of transforming the values of tolerance has succeeded in being carried out for early childhood.…”

Challenges for the Mental Health of Refugee Artists: Perspectives of the ADAPT Model

“…The research findings confirm that including refugees in the creation of art is crucial both emotionally and existentially, i.e., it gives them hope that the future will be better [34,36,39], creates a coherent life narrative [32,38,41], bridges trauma and reduces social isolation [20,40], integrates experiences and emotions [33], reconstructs identities [41], and allows refugees to stand in solidarity with their compatriots who have remained in their home countries [38].…”

“…To date, there have been relatively few publications on this issue. The available research primarily focuses on art therapy, including dance/movement therapy, movement and play therapy, BBAT, trauma-focused art therapy [20,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37], arts activism, and expressive arts intervention [34,[38][39][40][41].…”

“…Various studies have been conducted on both children and adults, including Syrian refugee children in Turkey [37], war-affected children from the developing world [32], youth detained at the Tornillo Influx Center in the USA [39], unaccompanied asylumseeking children in Norway [34], and adolescent refugees from Burma in the USA [35]. Similarly, adult groups such as Chilean exiles in Europe, Canada, the United States, Latin America, and North Africa [38]; refugees residing at a nonprofit humanitarian organization in the USA [31]; traumatized refugees at the REFUGIO treatment centre in Germany [20]; traumatized refugees with PTSD in Denmark [33]; female refugees from Albania, Ghana, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraq, Iran, Malawi, and Turkey in the UK [40]; refugees and asylum seekers with a PTSD diagnosis in Denmark [36]; and Syrian refugees resettled in Belgium [41] have been studied.…”

“…In terms of research methods, the most commonly utilized have been case studies/observations [20,31,32,41], surveys [34][35][36][37], and semi-structured interviews [33,38]. Deep and visual listening to art pieces [39] and participatory arts interventions [40] have been used less frequently.…”