Shaun McNiff

Art-based research uses artmaking as a mode of inquiry and presents the art as evidence. While sharing many qualities with science, it is distinguished by the unique character of each expression and personal dimensions that must also transcend their creators in establishing relevance to others. Artistic intelligence is a gestating, unpredictable, and often challenging crucible of creation that furthers discovery ahead of conscious thought. Rather than treating art as data to be analyzed by social science procedures, it speaks for itself and offers empirical evidence of its contributions to human understanding. In discussing the practice of art-based research emphasis is given to how methods emerge, sometimes unplanned, from the research process in keeping with the nature of art rather than following fixed and preexisting institutionally approved methods. Although strongly recommending format freedom for the future, the practical discussion explores how to work creatively within prescribed structures and embrace tensions with new technologies as sources of artistic transformation. It explores the role of video and digital media in generating convincing art evidence, universal accessibility involving trained and untrained artists, and the future importance of natural art experiments happening throughout the world beyond academic and professional settings.

Is genius shaped by the imagination of childhood? Edith Cobb's collection of autobiographies and biographies of creative people, as well as her observations of children's play, suggest just that. She sees the child to be innately connected with the natural world. Inner powers alone do not further the imagination. Her book remains a groundbreaking philosophical meditation on the importance of children's deep experience of nature to their adult cognition and psychological well-being.

Poetry is increasingly used in therapy, and it already occupies a central place in expressive arts therapies. This book is the first to explicitly combine theory and practice from the field of expressive arts with poetry and poetics.The book offers both a guide and poetic encouragement for using poetry in expressive arts work. Within this arts context, poetry is offered as a way to create hope and confidence, providing clients with a platform for healing, reconciliation, problem solving, and personal and professional development. Each chapter uses examples of poetry to illustrate the ideas of the chapter.With an outstanding contribution to the field of expressive arts theory and practice, this book is essential for people wanting to use an integrative arts-based approach to help their clients build resilience and foster sustainable, positive change in their lives.

Using Art as Research in Learning and Teaching explores various multidisciplinary visual and performing art forms, including creative writing, as ways to provide a rich contribution and understanding to research, learning and teaching. Key figures in the field share their art-based research, arts practice and philosophy, bringing the arts to life within their taught and learnt contexts across a variety of art forms and levels of post-compulsory education. In what is an invaluable collection, this book is directly beneficial to arts researchers and educators, addressing the key challenges and possibilities in a rapidly changing higher education environment.

The theory and practice of creativity culled from the lifetime of experiences of an esteemed art educator/therapist. With proven techniques he's discovered for jump-starting the creative process. He s spent a career helping people access their creative potential, and now Shaun McNiff is sharing the secrets he s learned from observing his own creative process as well as that of others both those who identify as artists and those who don t. The result is nothing less than a master class in creativity by one of the great creative theorists and practitioners of our time. This is intended as a practical text, Shaun says, a creativity primer, striving to capture the essential things that have been of use to me and others. The wealth of instruction he provides here in these essential things will be indispensable to artists of all stripes, as well as to all who strive to express themselves with honesty and authenticity using any of the media life makes available."

Therapeutic deep play has the capacity for children to express deep emotions, overcome seemingly insurmountable issues and resolve serious problems. Working with children in this profound way, therapists are able to not only eliminate symptoms, but to change the very structure of how children live with themselves, their defense and belief systems. The contributors to this book all work deeply, allowing children to take risks in a safe environment, and become fully absorbed in physical play. Chapters include play with deep sandboxes, clay, water, and various objects, and look at a range of pertinent case studies to demonstrate the therapeutic techniques in practice, alongside the theoretical concepts in which they are grounded. A new theoretical approach is established that takes from psychoanalysis as well as neuroscience and behaviourism, and offers a depth psychology approach in the treatment of children. This will be a valuable resource for anyone working therapeutically with children through play, including play therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists, arts therapists, counsellors, social workers and family therapists.

As art therapy rapidly makes its mark across Asia, this book documents how the field of art therapy is taking shape as both a profession and a discipline in this region. It looks at how art therapists in Asia are assimilating Western models and adapting them to create unique home-grown practices.Building on theory, research and practice that has been developed in the West, practitioners throughout Asia are creating innovative art therapy programs that reflect cultural diversity and draw on ideas from Chinese medicine and Eastern philosophy, spirituality and art traditions. With chapters from leading art therapists and community artists in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Cambodia, Thailand, China, India, The Philippines and Singapore, this book pulls together thought-provoking perspectives and effective approaches from which East and West can both learn.The first of its kind, this book will be an informative and inspiring addition to the bookshelves of all art therapy professionals and students, as well as anyone with an interest in Eastern cultures and cross-cultural working.

The physical care of people with dementia is of vital importance, but so too is their emotional, social, mental and spiritual wellbeing. The creative arts are gaining increasing recognition not only as a tool for delivering effective person-centred dementia care, but also for attending to soul as well as body. Encouraging those who care for people with dementia to develop their own creative skills, this book provides a creative map of care with easy-to-follow examples and detailed case studies. After explaining why adopting a creative approach is central to effective dementia care, the authors go on to discuss meditation, singing, movement and storytelling, describing the therapeutic benefits of each and giving practical examples of how they can be used with individuals or groups. They also look at the importance of creative supervision in promoting creativity and creating a safe space for honest interpersonal connection: an essential foundation for effective teamwork. This book will be an invaluable resource for anyone involved in the care of a person with dementia, including professional staff in residential and nursing homes, hospitals and day centres, families and other non-professional carers.

Stephen K. Levine's new book explores the nature of traumatic experience and the therapeutic role of the arts and arts therapies in responding to it. It suggests that by re-imagining painful and tragic experiences through art-making, we may release their fixity and negative hold on our lives and resist the temptation to assume the role of the victim. Among the many concerns that the book addresses is the damage done by the tendency to adopt stock methods of understanding and superficial explanations for the depths, complexities, wonders, and exasperations of human experience. The book explores the chaos and fragmentation inherent in both art and human existence and the ways in which memory and imagination can find meaning by acknowledging this chaos and embodying it in appropriate forms. The book builds on the important theories of Stephen K. Levine's previous book, Poiesis: The Language of Psychology and the Speech of the Soul, also published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. It challenges dominant psychological perspectives on trauma and provides a new framework for arts therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists and social scientists to understand the effectiveness of the arts therapies in responding to human suffering.

Presents a wide range of activities aimed at reviving art's traditional healing function and illuminates some progressive views in the rapidly expanding field of art therapy, including the practice of imagination as a force for transformation; the healing effects of group work; and total expression, which combines arts such as movement, storytelling, and drumming with painting and drawing. Original.

Do you believe that life within an organization means death to the creative process? That creativity is the exclusive province of "artistic types"? Wrong Shaun McNiff shows how we can all cultivate the special kind of creative energy that is generated by people working together in groups, whether in the workplace or other cooperative communities--wherever individuals come together to pursue a common goal through dialogue, interaction, and teamwork. "Creating with Others " is designed to address group creativity in both theory and practice. McNiff draws examples from the creative arts as well as from organizational life and everyday work situations. He shows how leaders can be facilitators of creative teamwork, and how artists and other creative people can collaborate fruitfully with others. The book includes exercises and questions that can be used in courses, informal discussion groups, and interactive e-groups. It will also help individual readers--ranging from beginners to artists seeking inspiration--to reflect upon their personal relationship with creativity. Readers will find that they are never alone in the creative process. Creativity is the basic interplay of life, and we establish a vital link to its power through engagements with others.

Art therapy and all of the other creative arts therapies have promoted themselves as ways of expressing what cannot be conveyed in conventional language. Why is it that creative arts therapists fail to apply this line of thinking to research? In this exciting and innovative book, Shaun McNiff, one of the field's pioneering educators and authors, breaks new ground in defining and inspiring art-based research. He illustrates how practitioner-researchers can become involved in art-based inquiries during their educational studies and throughout their careers, and shows how new types of research can be created that resonate with the artistic process.Clearly and cogently expressed, the theoretical arguments are illustrated by numerous case examples, and the final part of the book provides a wealth of ideas and thought provoking questions for research.This challenging book will prove invaluable to creative art therapy educators, students, and clinicians who wish to approach artistic inquiry as a way of conducting research. It will also find a receptive audience within the larger research community where there is a rising commitment to expanding the theory and practice of research. Integrating artistic and scientific procedures in many novel ways, this book offers fresh and productive visions of what research can be.

Art therapy and all of the other creative arts therapies have promoted themselves as ways of expressing what cannot be conveyed in conventional language. Why is it that creative arts therapists fail to apply this line of thinking to research? In this exciting and innovative book, Shaun McNiff, one of the field's pioneering educators and authors, breaks new ground in defining and inspiring art-based research. He illustrates how practitioner-researchers can become involved in art-based inquiries during their educational studies and throughout their careers, and shows how new types of research can be created that resonate with the artistic process. Clearly and cogently expressed, the theoretical arguments are illustrated by numerous case examples, and the final part of the book provides a wealth of ideas and thought provoking questions for research.This challenging book will prove invaluable to creative art therapy educators, students, and clinicians who wish to approach artistic inquiry as a way of conducting research. It will also find a receptive audience within the larger research community where there is a rising commitment to expanding the theory and practice of research. Integrating artistic and scientific procedures in many novel ways, this book offers fresh and productive visions of what research can be.

"Whenever illness is associated with loss of soul," writes Shaun McNiff, "the arts emerge spontaneously as remedies, soul medicine." The medicine of the artist, like that of the shaman, arises from his or her relationship to "familiars"--the themes, methods, and materials that interact with the artist through the creative process. Art As Medicine demonstrates how the imagination heals and renews itself through this natural process. The author describes his pioneering methods of art therapy--including interpretation through performance and storytelling, creative collaboration, and dialoguing with images--and the ways in which they can revitalize both psychotherapy and art itself.