Creative Art Therapy in a Community's Participatory Research and Social Transformation

When people come together in community to practice critical inquiry, they develop a capacity to see, reflect, and become subjects of their own development. This article describes arts-based participatory action research in partnership with a nongovernmental organization in Central America. Creative art therapy was culturally adapted and practiced on the macro level to facilitate a community's art-based research, achieving outcomes that contributed to social action and transformation. Popular education, a grassroots pedagogy that aims to transform oppressive power structures, reinforced group norms and facilitation. The results showed that community-based creative art therapy in participatory action research strengthened the personal, spiritual, and social development of the co-researchers, which in turn multiplied broader impacts on their communities. Acknowledgments Editor's Note: Lynn Kapitan, PhD, ATR-BC, is a Professor and Director of the Art Therapy Doctoral program at Mount Mary College, Milwaukee, WI. Mary Litell, MA, OSF, is an international trainer in multicultural wellness education with Capacitar International, based in Santa Clara, CA. Anabel Torres, CSA, is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Cantera (Centro de Comunicación y Educación Popular) of Managua, Nicaragua. The authors wish to thank Patricia Cane and the Cantera staff, co-researchers, and community members of Managua, Ciudad Sandino, Mateare, Belén, Rivas, and León, Nicaragua, for their participation and commitment to social transformation.