Art therapy's environment is more than the boundaries of a frame. It can be an encounter, a happening, or a situation in the making. It may surround and enclose as architecture, or be an outdoor experience related to public places and daily life. Art therapy can also form collaborations with nature and contribute to the making of land art or craft habitats for deliberate intentions. Equally art therapy can find its place within social environments and form a sense of locality or residency within society on the move. It can also be an art form of protest, implicated with the declarations of civic society ().
Figure 1. The start of something.
Environment is an essential companion to art therapy. It says something and makes an impression that is not neutral. Environment is influential in demarcating the significance of an overall space, and also references multiple locations for art making within a particular setting. It is an atmosphere that invites participation, makes a scene, and bears witness to art therapy's proceedings. Art therapy environments are ecologies that produce particular conditions for creation. Environment is the here-and-now and what could be. It affects art-based decisions, actions, and connectivity. The surroundings of art therapy are the starting point, so they should offer something, at the very least reassurance ().
Figure 2. The view from where I'm standing.
The studio of art therapy may be an entire environment for composition, where the art materials are not just on the table, but involve themselves within the totality of the location itself. This is applicable to both natural and built environments. The studio is an assembly of possibility, an enactment, and a territory that contributes significance to artworks. The art therapy studio sets the tone for art therapy's production and can animate exploration. An art therapy environment should be democratic and subject to change. It could even be “found” en route or have the ability to be transportable and relevant within specific circumstances ().
Figure 3. Out in the open.
In this issue, the theme of art therapy and environment is examined in the context of a community festival, international art therapy training, a therapeutic garden, a natural disaster, and an intergenerational artistic event. Each author contributes a specific analysis relating to a therapeutic environment. As a whole, this collection of articles promote distinctive forms of art therapy where environments exert influence and determine art forms that are relevant to nature, culture, and social issues.
Cora H. McLachlan's article, “Art Therapy Caves: Linking Community Art to a Therapeutic Space,” documents the construction of a shelter for passersby to inhabit within the busyness of a community festival. The cave was made for interaction and became a temporary place of retreat. This cave for listening (to one's self) ultimately inspired Cora's design of an art therapy school environment that echoed her installation's supportive and restorative nature. Cora invites art therapists to consider the design of their art therapy studios in relation to the promotion of creative agency. As an ethos of practice, each type of art therapy environment could be considered an artwork in itself, encouraging both art therapists and their clients to further their art into therapeutic surroundings.
Seung Yeon Lee examines art therapy's capacity to travel. In her article, “Global Action Art Therapy: Cross-Cultural Experiences in South Korea,” she articulates the complexities of art therapists working across cultures and social environments where context specific references and different languages challenge practices of art therapy. She describes these cross-cultural experiences in relation to an international art therapy course in South Korea. Art therapy students utilised reflective supervision practices and journaling to document their responses to unfamiliar cultural encounters. The article highlights the necessity for international art therapy courses to develop ethically appropriate practices to defy ethnocentrism.
A garden is a living work of art. Each part of the garden's design and materials responds to metaphors of human life. The study “Garden as Canvas: Therapeutic Metaphors in a Children's Garden,” by Carol Knibbe and Petrea Hansen-Adamidis, extends art therapy's influence outdoors into nature, where art materials are alive with significance and therapeutic scope. Knibbe and Hansen-Adamidis report on the many benefits of gardening, including improved concentration, enhanced self-esteem, decreased anxiety, and an overall feeling of accomplishment. An art therapy garden offers symbols of growth, impermanence, and loss. It is seasonal and reflects conditions of human experience. As a place for contemplation, learning, and roaming, the art therapy garden invites participation.
Jess Linton has written an eloquent and moving chronicle of her work as an art therapist in Nepal during the aftermath of two earthquakes in 2015. Her article, “A Natural Response to a Natural Disaster: The Art of Crisis in Nepal,” outlines the potential of art therapy within disaster relief. Linton asserts art therapy's significance to humanitarian aid, through the offering of therapeutic materials and a place for deliberation. Her contributions to United Nations-supported Child Friendly Spaces adapted art therapy to conditions of upheaval and despair. She used natural materials in a restorative way, confronting the reality of nature's betrayal through constructing safe places of refuge. The resulting artworks were declarations of the human spirit prevailing during times of tragedy.
“The Flowers of Compassion: A Trauma-Informed Artistic Event Involving Three Generations of Slovenians,” by Katarina Kompan Erzar, is a poignant account of intergenerational solidarity amongst Slovenians affected by the anguish of World War II. “The Flowers of Compassion” was an event marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and post-war violence in Slovenia. It was a therapeutically-informed performance incorporating music, poetry, and art to facilitate the sharing of vulnerability and understanding in relation to family history. The artistry of the occasion released painful emotions, which were given meaning and significance through art forms that articulated both distress and hope. The event not only opened pathways of communication between generations, it bestowed an environment of compassion, where suffering was acknowledged and younger generations gained insight into the affects of trauma through the ages.
Two book reviews are included in this issue. The first is by Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers reporting on the role of art history and art media choices within art therapy as outlined in the book Using Art Media in Psychotherapy: Bringing the Power of Creativity to Practice, by Michelle L. Dean. The second book review is by Sara Clark and describes the characteristics of multidisciplinary teams and their relevance to arts therapists as articulated in Arts Therapists in Multidisciplinary Settings: Working Together for Better Outcomes, edited by Caroline Miller.
Both Marilyn Magnuson and Haley Toll provided editorial support for this issue. In their previous roles as Chief Editors, Haley and Marilyn encouraged new research and innovations in art therapy practice. They also developed the journal's collaboration with Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. I am grateful for their guidance and patience and their dedication to the journal. I also appreciate the expert knowledge and assistance provided by the journal's publishing team at Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
May this issue influence art therapy to become more attentive to its environments as forms of art and places of production. An art therapy environment should not be taken for granted. The potential to use an art therapy context as a landscape of opportunity facilitates art therapy's reach into the sculpting of space as part of artistic practice. An art therapy environment is not a background but the scene for experiences in the making.