This study explores artmaking as a therapeutic arts- and trauma-informed practice in critical inquiry with others during the collective activity of a happening. Happenings are nonhierarchical environments that offer the exciting, nontraditional promise of taking art off the walls and into a larger context. In the space of mutual respect and…

This article aims to illuminate the perceptions of a pilot grief- and trauma-informed empowerment arts summer program for adolescents who lived in an at-risk Southern, urban neighborhood identified by the city in question as having a high percentage of street violence. The study it is based on was grounded in qualitative techniques, which…

Schools regularly find themselves dealing with the aftermath of family, community and national tragedies. In this article, two university-based educators share their experiences of working with schools to engage children in arts-based activities to support the processing of the traumatic events they endured. In both cases, children in local…

A small but growing cadre of schools and districts across the nation are turning to interventions rooted in brain science to complement or replace core curricula. Such programs target a related set of cognitive processes, known as executive function (EF), that are key to learning. Executive function skills are essential for planning, executing,…

While studies in the biological and psychological sciences have suggested that writing can promote physical healing, such studies offer a limited understanding of writing as a complex, embodied, and social practice. This article asks how and under what social and pedagogical conditions writing might promote experiences of healing in community…

New Zealand has faced an unprecedented series of disaster events in recent years. The Canterbury earthquakes provided an opportunity to document the role that schools played in supporting their communities to respond to and recover from such events. It is important that we capture what we have learnt from these experiences to help other schools in…

This paper shares the results of an exploratory study that measured the change in Executive Function (EF) skills of At-Risk third-grade students with varying Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) before and after an Arts-Integration (AI) program. Student EF skills were measured using the Minnesota Executive Function Scale (MEFS) and a statistically…

In response to provincial and national calls for whole school approaches, and in the hope to support new teacher competencies aimed at promoting mental health, this paper considers the changing dynamics within the current classroom through elements and implications of a participatory study conducted in an Alberta urban elementary school. Specifics…

The purpose of this study is to measure the effects of fostering resilience through art education for students with severe physical disabilities ages 7-21. Recent trends of fostering resilience through art education were explored. Current attitudes towards art education for severely disables individuals were also explored. Of particular interest…

While creativity is discussed as a core competence for talented people around the world in the twenty-first century, its exhibition is determined by one's character. Creativity and character education, therefore, should not be considered as separate matters, but the systematically related matters, and exhibition of creativity, can be carried away…

Evidence that posttraumatic growth is a potential outcome in the process of recovery from trauma and natural disaster highlights the importance of social environmental factors that encourage a growth response in survivors. This art-based research project followed up on a group of youth survivors (N = 11) of the 2007 earthquake in the Ica region of…