Using the arts to work with refugees and displaced persons in times of crisis and war
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Keywords
art therapy, south africa
Abstract
Our global community is experiencing the highest numbers of internally displaced persons and refugees brought about by crises and war. Not since World War II have we seen such huge numbers of persons who have been separated from their families and communities and are without homes. The war in Ukraine alone, caused by Russia’s illegal invasion, has contributed to over 14 million refugees and displaced persons, of which, according to UNICEF, 4.6 million are children. This panel explored how the arts can contribute towards restoring common humanity and dignity to those in crisis. Practical examples of how the arts and arts therapies are being used with refugees and displaced persons across the globe were presented. Topics such as safety, space and place, peer support, and collaboration were revisited as these relate to resilience, wellness, and empowerment. Three major questions guided the presenters as they shared their experience in working with people in crisis:
- Why use the arts when working with refugees and displaced persons?
- How are the arts understood/perceived as they are being integrated in this field of work?
- How do we restore common dignity and humanity to persons living in crisis?
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References
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Phillip Speiser, Parkside Arts and Health Associates; University of the Witwatersrand ; University of Johannesburg
Phillip Speiser, PhD, REAT, RDT/BC, is an artist, expressive arts educator/therapist, drama therapist, and psychodramatist who has developed integrated arts therapy, wellness/health and educational programmes for over four decades. He is currently Director of Parkside Arts and Health Associates in Haymarket, Virginia where he does supervision and project development/management around the globe. He is also a research associate at the University of the Witwatersrand and a lecturer at the art therapy programme at the University of Johannesburg. After the tragic events of 9/11 he developed the Healing Arts Project, a trauma recovery/prevention programme in Boston and New York City.
Vivien Marcow Speiser, Lesley University;
Vivien Marcow Speiser, PhD LMHC, REAT, BC-DMT, is a professor Emerit and co-director of the Institute for Arts and Health in the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences, Lesley University. Marcow Speiser has directed and taught in programs across the United States and internationally and has used the arts as a way of communicating across borders and across cultures. She believes in the power of the arts to create the conditions for personal and social change and transformation. Her interests and expertise are in the areas of working with trauma and cross-cultural conflict resolution through the arts and she has worked extensively with groups in the Middle East and in South Africa. She is a Fulbright Scholar and had a Salzburg Global Seminars Fellowship in 2020. She received an honorary JAAH Lifetime Achievement in Arts and Health Award in 2019, the 2014 Distinguished Fellows Award from the Global Alliance for Arts and Health, as well as a 2015 Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award from the Israeli Expressive and Creative Arts Therapy Association.
Prof Raymond Saner , Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND)
Prof Raymond Saner is a titular professor at Basle University (Economics and Management Department) and has taught at Sciences Po, Paris (Trade & Development of Low Income Development Countries) and at Lüneberg University (Environmental Negotiations). He is a reviewer and partner of research projects and co-founder of CSEND, a Geneva-based NGRDO with ECOSOC accreditation and consultative status. He has been involved with the 2030 Agenda since 2013, was moderator at the Second HLPF meeting under the auspices of ECOSOC, author of a chapter on the science-policy interface for the GSDR Report 2015, member of the drafting committee of Chapter 6 on LDCs, SIDS, and LLDCs and member of the UNECE PPP Bureau 2019-2021. He co-chairs the academic network of the OECD Guidelines on Business and Human Rights, is a member of the UN Task Force on Solidarity and Social Enterprises and is an expert in CSR quality standards. Saner holds a PhD in psychology from UGS University of Ohio, a Master in Education from Lesley University, and a License in Economics and Trade from Basle University. He studied sociology at the University of Freiburg. i.Br in Germany and is the author of 15 books, 35 book chapters and 45 referred journal articles.
Prof Lichia Saner Yiu , Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND)
Prof Lichia Saner Yiu is president and co-founder of the Centre for Socio-Eco-Nomic Development (CSEND), a 30-year-old NGO based in Geneva and accredited by ECOSOC in special consultative status. She is an expert in organisational development and institutional learning and is active in policy debates, strategic analysis and designing public administrative reforms. She teaches at various universities in Japan, Italy and Switzerland on management and leadership, human resource development (micro and macro) and the 2030 Agenda and its 17 SDGs. She is an author of academic publications on the SDGs (city, education, poverty, data and monitoring, and institutional capacity building), co-convener and presenter for the SD Learning Module on Monitoring and Review at the 2015 HLPF, reviewer of the 2015 Global Sustainable Development Report, contributor to regional SDG consultation meetings, and director of CSEND’s Summer School on Global Leadership and SDG since 2015. Saner-Yiu was a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University 1983-1984 and has an EdD in organisational psychology from Indiana University. She has published books and more than 80 articles in academic journals. Her newest book, Public Goods, Sustainable Development and the Contributions of Business (2021), is co-authored with Raymond Saner, Roland Bardy, and Arthur Ruben.
Nathalie Robelot-Timtchenko, First Aid of the Soul
Nathalie Robelot-Timtchenko, MA, is founder and executive director of First Aid of the Soul. She holds a Master in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a specialisation in Intermodal Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University. She is a professional member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA) and the European Federation of Art Therapy (EFAT). While most of her life was spent cross-culturally, the last eight years were in Kyiv, Ukraine. Ukraine is her home. She has over a decade of clinical experience working with groups, individuals, and families within a variety of settings and cultures. Her expertise is in working with individuals facing challenges related to self-worth, acculturation, displacement, complex trauma, crisis, suicidal ideation, depression, anxiety, family conflict, and interpersonal difficulties. Robelot-Timtchenko founded and directs First Aid of the Soul, which offers free mental health and psychosocial support services through multifaceted approaches and a holistic trauma-informed lens to Ukrainians affected by the war.
Dr Joanna Wroblewska, First Aid of the Soul (FAS)
Joanna Wroblewska, PhD, MA-ET, is a visual artist, expressive arts therapist, and Yoga Nidra teacher currently based in Belgium. She holds a doctoral degree in visual arts and a Master in Expressive Arts Therapy with a minor in Psychology. Joanna works mainly with people who have experienced migration in any form and those who search for a place of belonging, as this is also her own life path. She specialises in profound trauma-informed, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary therapeutic work using art-based tools, somatic practices, guided imagery, and deep relaxation techniques.
Dr Debra Kalmanowitz, Sapir Academic College; Portable Studio
Dr Debra Kalmanowitz, PhD, HCPC, BAAT, is a registered art therapist and visual artist with extensive experiences in the context of humanitarian aid, disaster/crisis relief, trauma, resilience, displacement, political violence, refugees, community, social justice, and social change. She held positions at the Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture (Londen) and Christian Action (Hong Kong), where she worked with refugees. She is a practising artist and art therapist, head of the Master in Art Therapy programme at Sapir Academic College (Israel), senior lecturer at Ono Academic College, psychosocial facilitator for an international humanitarian non-government organisation (NGO), and works with refugees in South Tel Aviv (Assaf). She is the co-author of The Portable Studio and Art Therapy and Political Violence and Art Therapy in Asia: To the bone or wrapped in silk.
Bobby Lloyd , Art Refuge; Portable Studio
Bobby Lloyd is a visual artist, art therapist, educator, and refugee charity CEO based in London. She works with displacement, community, crisis support, co-production, and social justice. For more than three decades, she has worked as an art therapist in NHS child and adolescent mental health, inner-city schools and community settings, and on numerous socially engaged art projects and interventions, exhibiting in galleries, site-specific, and public settings in the United Kingdom and internationally. Through the privilege of extensive collaborations with other artists and art therapists, she has co-led two contemporary arts projects based in East London at the drawing shed and On Site Arts. She has co-led projects, consultation, and training in contexts of conflict and upheaval. She co-wrote The Portable Studio and Art Therapy and Political Violence with Debra Kalmanowitz, under the Art Therapy Initiative. She has been CEO of Art Refuge since 2016, regularly works with people displaced and in crisis contexts in the United Kingdom and internationally, writes collaboratively about practice and ideas, and the development of The Community Table model.