Research suggests that the arts can have a positive impact on youth development, from birth through adolescence. This review explores recent research on arts-based programs and arts therapies. Programs were considered arts-based if at least one of the main components was an arts-related activity, or if there was a deliberate use of arts in the…

During the 1930s and 1940s art increasingly came to be used as a therapeutic tool with children who were perceived as damaged by their experiences of war or displacement. This article explores two related exhibitions--"Children's Art from All Countries" (1941) and "The War as Seen by Children" (1943)--which provided a platform…

Research suggests that art programs have positive therapeutic effects on children, including improved self-concept. This pretest/posttest intervention study examined changes in self-concept in children (N = 176) who participated in an art program at the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Results indicated significant, positive increases in…

This study was designed to understand the potential for gained Executive Functioning through an Art Education learning environment by students whom experience a Specific Learning Disability at the High School Level. The author actualizes a limited case study of three students to understand if students whom experience Specific Learning Disabilities…

Head Start, a U.S. federally funded program, prepares children for school through early childhood intervention in social-emotional and cognitive arenas. This article describes program evaluation survey results from the past 5 years of an 18-year collaboration between a university graduate art therapy program and 8 Head Start centers. Graduate art…

This article describes an arts and narrative intervention program using visual art, storytelling, music, journaling, and support groups with incarcerated abused women to address the following questions: How can visual art and music empower incarcerated female survivors of domestic violence? Can art, music, storytelling, journaling, and support…