Making art: a qualitative study of personal and group transformation in a community arts studio

The objectives of this ethnographic study were to understand the effect of an integrated arts studio on the lives of the participants including the impact of social isolation, stigma and discrimination, and to study the importance of consumer perspective in the design and implementation of the program.

Methods included the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews, participant-observation, journal keeping, and document review with twenty individuals. Ten participants self identified as having mental illnesses, and their diagnoses were varied in severity and description; the other ten participants reported no mental illnesses.

A key finding of the study was that art making provided participants the opportunity to build new identities and roles, and that through engagement in mutually meaningful activity, in this case making art, a community of artists developed. Art was also seen as a bridge creating access to the larger community.

These findings add further evidence for the power of art making as a practical strategy to affect the health of individuals living with psychiatric disabilities as well as the communities in which they reside.