Artful Coalitions: Challenging Adverse Adolescent Experiences

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

¹ Traditionally, students who are labeled at-risk have been categorized using many terms, including educationally disadvantaged, culturally deprived, low income, dropout, alienated, marginalized, handicapped, disenfranchised, homeless, disabled, impoverished, underprivileged, low achieving, and low performing. For the purposes of this article, at-risk describes multiple types of individuals, who for numerous reasons have experienced “failure in their careers as learners” (Presseison, 1991, p. 5).

² Definitions were adapted from the Merriam Webster and the Oxford English online dictionaries.

³ Friedl Dicker-Brandeis was an accomplished Bauhaus trained artist who has been described as hero for her educational and therapeutic work with the Children of Terezin (Glazer, 1999; Hurwitz, 1988). She nurtured her students creatively, aesthetically, and psychologically, and in the process she offered her students hope and courage (Wix, 2009). Her progressive educational pedagogy (Leshnoff, 2006) can be viewed as a historical and educational precursor to art therapy (Kay, 2007), “offers a template for working in contemporary educational and therapeutic contexts with children and adolescents who have experienced adverse childhood experiences, including loss and trauma” (Kay & Kárpáti, 2014, p. 3).

⁴ Artist pseudonyms used for confidentiality.

⁵ Written Parent/Guardian permission was obtained by the agency for students to participate in this project, for artwork to be photographed, and the study to be presented at conferences or in a professional journal.

⁶ The female artists introduced were: Ruth Asawa, Elizabeth Catlett, Mary Cassatt, Judy Chicago, Audrey Flack, Artemisia Gentileschi, Lee Godie, Eva Hesse, Lee Krasner, Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner, Elizabeth Layton, Miriam Schapiro, Lorna Simpson, Gunta Stölzl, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Faith Ringgold.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Kay

Lisa Kay is Chairperson, Department of Art Education and Community Arts Practices, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. E-mail: [email protected]

Denise Wolf

Denise Wolf is Adjunct Professor, Department of Creative Arts Therapies, at Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. E-mail: [email protected]