Art-Making with Refugees and Survivors: Creative and Transformative Responses to Trauma After Natural Disasters, War and Other Crises

Sally Adnams Jones is Director of TransformArta and has taught art education at The University of Victoria, Canada. Her PhD research explored how survivors of the HIV/AIDs pandemic in Africa transformed through their art practice.

This timely book reveals the therapeutic effect group art projects can have when working with survivors and refugees of war, natural disaster, poverty, pandemic and genocide. Artists and therapists who have worked with trauma internationally explain the theory and practice of their approaches and provide inspiration for others working in this area.

1. Introduction. 2. Mapping Personal and Socio-Political Trauma. 3. How Creativity and the Expressive Arts Transform Individual Trauma. 4. How Creativity and the Expressive Arts Transform Social Trauma. 5. Stories from Philadelphia, Kenya, and Rwanda, with Survivors of Poverty, Inner City Violence, and Genocide. Lily Yeh, The Barefoot Artists Organisation. 6. Stories from South Africa, with Survivors of Poverty, Patriarchy, and the HIV/AIDS Pandemic. Dr Carol Baker Hofymeyr, The Keiskama Trust Art Project. 7. Stories from Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, India, France and Greece, with Survivors of Poverty and Ideological Violence, and Those Living in Refugee Camps. Max Levi Frieder, Artolution. 8. Stories from Canada and Sri Lanka, with Survivors of Ethnic Conflict, Religious Intolerance, Tsunami, and the Effects of Globalization. Paul Hogan, The Butterfly Peace Garden. 9. Stories from Canada, with Survivors of Cultural Genocide, Neo-Colonialist Racism, and Inter-Generational Trauma. Dr Sally Adnams Jones, TransformArta Consulting. 10. Conclusions about Healing Trauma and Learning to Transform through Creativity. About the Contributors.