Emotional well-being in the classroom through art

As in other disciplines, the impact of the arts and artistic methodologies on the physical and emotional well-being of people is the subject of constant observation by the field of research, especially in a context where the verification of scientific evidence implies its endorsement for its possible recommendation or social therapeutic prescription.

There is an increasing number of empirical studies whose results confirm and assume the impact of artistic disciplines as catalysts or facilitators of improvement in areas such as health, for example, in the field of oncology, fibromyalgia or mental health, or in the field of working with special groups, to name just a few examples.

From the perspective of scientific rigor applicable to other types of trials, we could question whether many published studies still exhibit methodological shortcomings, such as the diversity of uncontrolled variables, the difficulty of replicability, the lack of blinded groups, or the small sample sizes, which statistically limits the significance of the results. These are certainly areas where further progress is needed. Nevertheless, despite these methodological limitations, there is empirical evidence that implicitly supports the recognition of this research.

We'll give two examples:

The impact of physical and social activity on people's emotional well-being and its social prescription, although still in its early stages, is recognized and already forms part of the key objectives of our healthcare system, following the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) . These recommendations are explicitly extended by the WHO to the use and promotion of the arts and artistic activities.

New developments in neuroscience and neuroimaging have facilitated major scientific advances that bring us closer than ever before to understanding how our brain works, and with it, our mental and emotional well-being. Thousands of rigorous scientific studies have demonstrated, for example, the evidence of brain plasticity and how neural structures are transformed by new learning.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that subjective well-being, self-efficacy, competence, and self-realization of intellectual and emotional capacities (among others) are signs of well-being in mental health.

The arts contain a complex language that aids human expression. As students incorporate language to reflect on the world and express their ideas, they find themselves and feel a part of the world.

The benefits that the arts promote in students are:

• They promote attitudes of self-improvement .
• They help with personal growth, self-knowledge and self-realization (by reflecting on themselves they have a greater awareness of their reality in order to transform it).
• They help overcome limiting situations and social labels. Working with art allows them to explore their healthy aspects and strengthen the skills they develop through the process. Discovering positive aspects about themselves also helps them take ownership of their role in the world.
• Improvement in autonomy (they can incorporate a language that allows them to initiate a personal artistic process that promotes autonomy in decision-making).
• Improvement of motivational aspects linked to response and involvement in activities. Through art, they enjoy activities that allow them to learn to be proactive and take ownership of their decisions.
• They promote integration (a vision of life from the environment and the community).
• They help us develop an undistorted perception of reality. By connecting us with others and offering dialogue to understand different social realities, the arts help people cultivate empathy and sensitivity, thus fostering a broader and, in any case, less distorted view of reality.
• They promote adaptation to interpersonal relationships . Art helps initiate personal and group processes and fosters social interaction. It helps them practice basic social forms and integrate and explore different personal aspects between reality, play, and personal and community work.
• To experience complex learning that links them to knowledge and the social environment , through open creative processes.

Playing with art, with artistic techniques in general, involves constant multidimensional training and a permanent opportunity for the development of personal and interpersonal skills that affect emotional well-being and mental health.

It improves communication skills and the ability to express what we feel and think, which is fundamental for preventing or addressing psychological distress. Art offers us particularly expressive languages that open up alternative channels of communication in an almost innate way.

Similarly, working with artistic formats provides us with tools to integrate and value information from our environment, giving it context and meaning in relation to different personal dimensions, and creating especially valuable spaces for active listening. This kind of listening can undoubtedly be particularly important in situations of personal distress, but also for developing empathy skills to understand and support those around us in their mental health processes.

But art, in our experience, also proposes non-critical spaces such as dramatic games where openness and acceptance give way to the opportunity to share complex life situations without fear of prejudice or the sharing of vital difference as a quality.

Art and creation, and particularly contemporary art (which is our area of focus), help us to imagine and broaden our perspectives, provoke reactions, and leave no one indifferent. It is a space for sharing questions and answers, where we are free to question, imagine, express opinions, and debate. These kinds of projects offer an opportunity for personal and collective growth through contemporary art methodologies and practices based on transformative and democratizing principles. This generates very interesting dynamics of exchange, mutual learning, equal opportunities, empowerment, personal reaffirmation, and improved self-esteem , all of which have a positive impact on the mental health of the individuals and groups involved.

We recommend consulting the Repository for arts and health resources , a repository that collects the development of the arts and health movement in the United Kingdom and internationally, from 1996 onwards.

The museum offers the opportunity to explore, through artistic language, the inner world of people, transcending words.

A single image can suggest a multitude of emotions, experiences, ideas, and reach places where words cannot express.

The museum is also a social space where participants are encouraged to share experiences in a respectful environment, stimulate their imagination and creativity, and explore alternative ways to cope with their difficulties or problems. The aim is to improve self-esteem and self-confidence, and to foster a sense of empowerment within the group to adopt healthier habits.

Many museum institutions are carrying out projects along these lines. We highlight some examples:

• Art and Health Program - National Museum of Catalonia
• Correspondence - Carmen Thyssen Museum Malaga
• I had things asleep - MACBA Barcelona
• A space to believe and create - Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Madrid
• School in Residence - CCCB
• National Organization for Arts in Health
• More Picasso Museum

Art helps to demystify so-called negative emotions . All emotions are necessary; the key lies in how we manage them when we are immersed in them. In this sense, theater is a great tool for "training" ourselves to be hosts to emotions, and playing with them helps us to accept them. Emotions are the driving forces of life.

In our experience, artistic creation expands the capacity for self-regulation. Art is born from emotions and amplifies them, allowing people to explore their own thoughts and channel these emotions through creativity. This process helps us understand ourselves and see ourselves from a different perspective. This new perspective can generate emotional well-being during times of high stress or tension from daily life, helping us cope with situations where mental health might otherwise be compromised.

The impact of the pandemic, the lockdowns, the limitations on social contact, the frustration, and the postponement of expectations have left us with unwanted consequences such as emotional distress. This distress has multiple manifestations, including anxiety and depressive states in both young people and adults. Undoubtedly, the gradual return to social contact, activities, and support groups presents an opportunity to reverse these types of emotional and psychological distress.

The development of artistic activities helps to channel and release discomfort, to relieve the level of tension that anxiety or depression can produce, to open "times out" in which the students' attention gradually recovers the ability to be oriented towards the assigned task and, even if only for brief periods of time, moves away from the negative self-perception they may have of their condition.

When these artistic activities are shared, they offer a particularly relevant framework to facilitate positive social contact processes, recognition of distress, and mutual learning and support in a transition to recovery.

Art can help address emotions, express difficulties, and confront adversity. Beyond being a necessary tool, art is a transformative and enriching one in the context of mental health. Culture becomes the space to express human experience, including profound pain.

Boris Cyrulnik, a leading figure in the field of resilience, refers to culture as the third way because it provides a space to explain what cannot be shared; for this reason, art becomes the space for human overcoming adversity and the space for resilience. In Cyrulnik's words: "Poetry, theater, or drawing become an act of liberation because they allow people to share what happened to them with others, while still controlling their emotions."

Yes. For example, in the performing arts, listening is a very important element, whether it's listening to a partner or to a musical fragment that we play with in tandem, so that we work on waiting and with that we are training ourselves in the management of impulses.

On numerous occasions, in our theater workshops, we have had, and continue to have, participants who suffer from some type of obsessive-compulsive disorder that significantly impacts much of their daily lives. During the workshops, where there is full acceptance of difference, the manifestation of symptoms is much less pronounced or practically imperceptible because the person's attention is focused on the group, on active listening, and on collective creation. This observation, transformed into learning and training, allows for the progressive management of obsessions and compulsions.

Art allows us to discover new meanings when we work from representations of students' experiences and integrate the knowledge of others and groups. It is a way of making a complex reality visible.

Activities that allow students to share their perceptions of a painting, play, or piece of music with others are valuable because by expressing their thoughts, students share their imagination, which empowers them and boosts their self-esteem . Artistic perception helps to develop greater awareness, strengthen or acquire skills, and encourage them (even symbolically) to change reality. Promoting resilience through conscious conversations is recommended . Resilience can be cultivated.

Furthermore, artistic activities derived from play dynamics are interesting because play allows children to explore different aspects of reality. Play enables them to approach an activity from a more relaxed and playful perspective, where they can encounter new situations and experiment with new ways of interacting with their lives and their environment.

Finally, developing a personal art project is recommended for students with special educational needs because, through this project, they can engage in learning through different media, achieving self-awareness and accessing complex knowledge. It also allows them to work from their own interests, concerns, and needs, which helps them develop empowerment and reflect on who they are or who they want to be. Experiencing a fresh process that culminates in a creative work offers them the opportunity to overcome limitations, engage in a different type of communication, and dare to propose a cultural creation that they can share with their community.

Beyond its religious meaning, spirituality is defined by the knowledge and cultivation of one's own immaterial essence. Spirituality, understood as the connection with one's deepest self, is intimately linked to art.

Art, in all its different dimensions, has throughout history represented a constant search for new languages and formats for analyzing and expressing the transcendental themes that concern us as sentient beings. Passion, the need to give it form and expression, occupies an endless list of canvases in museums around the world or is an inseparable part of opera and music in general.

Introducing our students to art provides them with tools to question their own essence. Offering them the opportunity to experiment with artistic techniques also opens their minds to inquiry and exploration.

In our opinion, through artistic creation we connect with the purest part of ourselves through our creativity. It allows us to discuss and address spiritual themes, from the individual to the collective and vice versa, even in seemingly innocuous moments, such as during the initial warm-up exercises, which generate moments of both absolute individuality and collectivity, where introspection takes on special significance.

Working in the arts is not just a way to create performances and products; it is a way to create our lives by expanding our consciousness, shaping our attitudes, satisfying our search for meaning, establishing contact with others, and sharing a culture.

Eisner, E. W. (2002). The Arts and the Creation of the Mind. London: Yale University Press.

All kinds of artistic activities can be carried out, from those related to the classical disciplines of fine arts, such as painting or sculpture, to those practices and methodologies related to contemporary creation: collage, installation, use of waste materials, performance, ready-mades , conceptual art, etc.

It is interesting to apply these practices and methodologies to any discipline, since art can address many issues and can serve as a cross-curricular resource for tackling different subjects, as well as personal and collective issues that affect us. It is also advisable to take advantage of the wealth of resources for working with art and creative activities in the classroom (as well as through art and creative activities) offered by various museums and cultural institutions.

Some examples of artistic activities in the classroom:

• Art on demand, Fundació Suñol
• Tate Kids
• MOMA Kids
• EduCaixa visual and plastic culture
• Expressart MACBA
• Postscript MACBA

Many activities can be carried out in the classroom. For example:

• Body movement activities associating movement with emotions, musical fragments, colors, images, etc. Draw lines on a sheet of paper that are linked to this movement and create a picture that comes from within ourselves.
• Role-playing games , reconstruction of vital or imaginary images based on the relocation of classmates, improvisations on a wide variety of topics, sharing and plastic translation of emotions or relevant moments

The classroom itself, the girls and boys who give it meaning at every moment, are a real opportunity to generate activities as long as they flow, are sensitive to variations and are dynamic from acceptance in which no one feels judged.

Various artistic activities can be carried out in the classroom that can promote knowledge, learning, and human well-being. Some artistic activities work well with certain groups but not with others; therefore, generalizations are not advisable.

The most important thing is to make an artistic proposal that can address the real needs of the groups, and for this, attentive listening, support, and great openness to the topics of interest to the human groups are needed.

Understanding the language of art and its potential is fundamental for anyone who chooses to work with art in the classroom. The role of the educator is crucial, as is methodological expertise . High-quality professional guidance enables individuals or groups to explore areas of interest and to approach or develop artistic projects. Knowledge of art and its methodologies is essential for empowerment and personal transformation. In this way, individuals can access the support they need, the resources, tools, sources, and role models that help them develop their ideas, navigate a profound and high-quality process, and learn and transform themselves through art.

The methodologies offered by artistic mediation for supporting creative processes are very rich. Artistic mediation has defined the intervention roles of the professional who uses art as a mediating tool between the individual and culture.

For this I recommend some readings about artistic mediation:

• Moreno González, A. (2010). Artistic mediation: a model of artistic education for social intervention through art . Ibero-American Journal of Education (OEI), 2010, 52/2 .
• Moreno, A. (2018). Artistic mediation as a goal for social transformation . National Council of Culture and Arts, 87-97.

Undoubtedly, it is advisable to start from the knowledge and everyday practices of the participants in a project or activity.

The closer we get to the everyday realities of the participants, the stronger the initial connection will be, allowing us to establish a suitable starting point for the deployment and development of a project. Therefore, it is important to use mechanisms and languages with which the users are familiar (and to which they also have much to contribute) and, starting from there, raise awareness of their use and propose a critical approach that expands their transformative and emancipatory potential, while also warning of the risks and mechanisms that can, in turn, turn them into oppressive languages that perpetuate stigmas and stereotypes.

We highlight some initiatives that work on visual literacy in a transformative sense:

• Magic Dragon
• HAMMOCK
• Ersilia Le Bal

Teenagers use audiovisual language to communicate, not always in a positive way since social media tends to distort reality, but it is still the language that motivates them and can therefore be a very good tool for exploring the teenage world. Above all, it is very positive to give them a voice and the opportunity to use audiovisual language from a creative perspective, while also giving them access to audiovisual references unknown to them.

A good example of the educational potential of audiovisual languages and media in the educational context can be found, for instance, in the projects compiled by Aulamedia and in the workshops they regularly organize on media literacy. It is significant how the correct and critical use of audiovisual media not only facilitates comprehension, introduces new and powerful languages, and provides a high degree of motivation, but also offers an ideal framework for developing individual and collective skills while engaging with key values for collective debate.

Music offers us a vast field of possibilities while also being a common and ever-present element in the world of young people. We could, for example, develop activities that connect different musical styles with real-life situations for students in which a specific emotion predominates, and from there investigate how they feel and what produces that feeling.

A very recent and interesting experience in the field of youth and mental health is the "Escolta l'Art" project, which has been running in Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona) since 2019. This initiative, aimed at young people with firsthand experience, offers an opportunity to develop tools for personal growth and self-care through experimentation and creation in different artistic formats. The participants themselves are the primary and sole protagonists, exercising their creative freedom.

Theatre is one of the most valuable tools for indirectly developing a wide range of individual and collective skills and abilities. Furthermore, given the great variety of formats and approaches available, it allows us to tailor the initiative to the characteristics, motivations, and interests of the group, as well as to the specific context. And this would be the first starting point: to consider it a collective endeavor to be explored, in which the participants are the primary generators of proposals.

Initially, for example, we can choose to work with improvisation games , which will facilitate a playful experience that, in turn, provides security. Gradually, numerous new opportunities for technical, emotional, and relational learning will emerge.

In our case, theater and theatrical techniques in the field of mental health have been fundamental in supporting and catalyzing recovery processes in people affected by mental disorders. They allow, among other things, natural training of cognitive abilities such as memory, attention, task organization, and, especially, active listening. But particularly valuable is the impact on self-confidence, self-esteem, and the development of interpersonal skills for teamwork.

In our particular experience and after a long learning process, there are several elements to consider beforehand:

• The age ranges of the students with whom we will share the project, since the dynamics and proposals must be accessible and adapted taking into account that our way of doing things and language have to be welcoming and shared by all participants, making respect for difference a central axis.
• The times of real social contact that we will develop. The different evaluations have shown us that awareness-raising processes leave a more natural and lasting mark if the contact is sustained and revolves around common and meaningful themes for people, beyond mere monothematic information.
• The ability to create spaces for shared enjoyment , combining mixed games and working from co-creativity and the here and now, and giving space to listening to each and every one in the different gatherings.
• The possibility of doing so in the natural educational context (school, institute, etc.) and with the participation of reference teaching staff.
• And, above all, to have the utmost sensitivity and transparency.

There are several examples of experiences:

• Relating life – Grup Teatro Imagina Association
• Artistic Parelles, creative experiences for mental health - Osonament
• Trespassing Walls - Fundació Sebta, Department of Justice of the Generalitat of Catalonia and Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu.