Open Studio in a Time of War: Older Women's Experiences of Creativity and Continuity During Prolonged Displacement

Prolonged wartime displacement disrupts continuity, identity, and social belonging in later life. This study examined the experiences of displaced older women who participated in an Open Studio (OS) art-based group intervention during an extended evacuation.

In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven women (aged 62-96) from a northern Israeli kibbutz who attended a weekly OS over approximately 18 months of displacement. The data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Four themes were identified:(1) Displacement as a rupture in continuity in later life, (2) The Open Studio as a restorative space of agency, (3) Creative processes as integrative and transformative, and (4) Relational holding through belonging, facilitation, and tensions.

An Open Studio can provide a developmentally sensitive psychosocial response to displaced older adults experiencing collective trauma. The findings underscore the potential of creative engagement in later life to sustain identity, purpose, and growth in conditions of displacement. In contexts of forced rupture, art-based spaces may offer older adults a means of preserving continuity in the face of upheaval.

Community-art-based interventions can help restore agency, continuity, and belonging in later life, but trauma-informed facilitation is needed to contain vulnerability and emotional activation.