Death, loss and community—Perspectives from children, their parents and older adults on intergenerational community‐based arts initiatives in Sweden

Abstract

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Play Elements as Mechanisms in Intergenerational Arts Activities to Support Community Engagement with End-of-Life Issues

“…In our data we could identify a Studio DöBra magic circle, i.e., the spatial and temporal boundaries of the arts workshops. Additionally, in line with Huizinga, the norms and customs inside the Studio DöBra magic circle deviated from ordinary life in that participants and partners interacted across generations beyond their families and engaged with EoL issues, whereas this would not occur in ordinary life in the same way, as indicated by our previous research [ 4 , 5 ]. However, participants and partners appeared to move in and out of playful modes within the Studio DöBra magic circle, rather than Huizinga’s idea of a magic circle as a separation between play and ordinary life, or Frissen et al’s ideas about play and ordinary life occurring simultaneously.…”

“…Within this, partners and participants sometimes used their imagination to engage with EoL issues, and sometimes introduced elements from ordinary life by sharing EoL-related experiences, such as the death of a family member or a pet. Additionally, our earlier analyses indicated that participants created spaces in their social networks for engaging with EoL issues stimulated through Studio DöBra participation [ 4 ]. We therefore conceptualize the Studio DöBra magic circle as a permeable boundary through which participants could introduce experiences from ordinary life into Studio DöBra and introduce elements from Studio DöBra into their ordinary lives, as illustrated in Figure 1 .…”

“…This is in line with Huizinga’s ideas about the continuation of play-communities: “The feeling of being ‘apart together’ in an exceptional situation, […] and rejecting the usual norms, retains its magic beyond the duration of the individual game” [ 19 ]. Partners and participants from both Studio DöBra iterations talked about continuing to meet in passing in the neighborhood [ 4 ]; Studio DöBra 2 participants also talked about visiting the bird’s grave. The Studio DöBra 1 exhibition was later shown at the activity center for older adults, and partners organized a reunion two months later.…”

“…Although death and loss are all around us—in our private lives, in the news, and other media—talking about these issues may be difficult as they are often considered sensitive and involve experiences that may be difficult to put into words [ 1 , 2 ]. In the existing literature we found consensus that arts activities offer alternative ways of engaging with end-of-life (EoL) issues, e.g., by involving all senses and including non-verbal modes of communication [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ].…”

“…The DöBra research program applies a health promotion approach to engage communities in EoL issues [ 13 ]. In Studio DöBra, we partnered with community organizations to bring together children (9 y/o) and older adults (most 80+) in a series of arts workshops to engage with issues related to dying, death, and loss [ 4 , 5 ]. Partnerships and development of arts workshops were informed by principles of community-based participatory research [ 14 ].…”