Disabled Creatives Alliance Pilot Program, Garden of Self

Study Duration: October 5, 2024, to January 5, 2025

Primary Investigator: Jennifer McCloskey

Other Facilitators and Researchers: Ryn Delpapa, Jennifer McCloskey, Madhumita Mishra, Maria Alejandra Rosales, Ebirim Praise Tochukwu, Kelly Logan Walker

Abstract

Arts in Medicine is an ever-growing field that integrates creative expression into clinical and community settings across the world. Despite this growth, program development for arts in health engagement with adults with disabilities remains underutilized in global practice, even with substantial evidence supporting the positive impacts on wellbeing, belonging, and other psychosocial benefits. To address this global gap, the Disabled Creatives Alliance was established, conducted, and will be examined in a mixed methods impact program evaluation. This initiative will pilot a series of global participatory art workshops, all titled Garden of Self, delivered both digitally and in person, to adults over the age of eighteen who self-identify as disabled in Myanmar, Nigeria, Peru, the United States, and other countries included online. These workshops will include group building, and discussion of the impact of disability, followed by a creative project subverting the invisibility and isolation of chronic illness. The aim of this study is to provide an intervention to improve short-term wellbeing and positively shift self-perception of participant’s disabilities. This study will also externally develop a sustainable framework for a global network of disabled creatives to continue developing community and shared arts in health initiatives.

Presentation Video

October 26th Recording