Collaborative Art and Relationships

Introduction

Relationship is at the core of how we live and who we are as human beings. Our desire for human interaction comes from how we are wonderfully designed and factors into how we mature, grow, and survive. Our basic social structures, our happiness, even our all-encompassing health and whole development depend upon how we are influenced by relationship. We are designed as relational beings that crave connection and thrive when appropriate social supports are present and active in our lives. The relationships we have with people who care for us while we are young and who are an integral presence in our younger years influence and directly shape who we become as adults (Siegel, 2015).

In today’s digital and fast-paced age, intimate and in-person connection and deep relationship is often glossed over or simply overlooked. Many people have lost the ability to enter into deep relationship with another individual or a group and truly connect on a personal level. Trust is difficult to find and attachment and close personal bonds are difficult to develop within a culture and society that screams for individuality, independence, and making it “on your own.” Social Capital, or value in relationships and in the reciprocal benefit of social relationship is not a priority or even something that individuals or communities consider. Sadly this is a trend that affects family structures as well. The availability of technology in the home has impacted how families communicate and how children learn to socialize. Increased screen time and decreased face-to-face time is slowly taking its toll on socialization skills and how children interact with and communicate with those around them. “Social capital matters for children’s successful development in life” (Putnam, 2000, p. 299) and in turn affects our families and communities in which they live (2000).

Collaborative creativity fosters an instant connection to others through our five senses. We see artwork, watch a dance theatre production, hear music, and taste carefully prepared foods. These sensory experiences immediately connect us as both the creator and participant or as the observer, creating common thought processes and opening opportunities for communication and interaction. Music and movement have been utilized for years as educational, developmental, and social supports for young children and their families. This chapter further explores this creative realm and offers observations on how the visual arts may support and enhance family relationships through collaborative creativity and art making experiences.

Thankfully the arts have a natural ability to reach across borders and create connections. Music can speak across language barriers even if one cannot understand the lyrics. Dance, facial expressions and movement are universal, and visual art can communicate without words or sounds. This expressive ability has powerful potential within relationships and specifically within the realm of mental health and education when verbal and direct communication is not always possible or effective.

Relationship bonding and social attachment is essential from birth. Attachment is the mammalian capacity for an infant to depend on a parent for his or her survival. Determined by the limbic area of the brain, attachment is essential to bonding and full and holistic social development(Siegel, 2015, p. 141). Our social development is essentially “the way in which our brains remember the attachment relationship(s) we have had, or still have, and how we have adapted to these formative attachment experiences” (Siegel, 2015, p. 141).

Even “infants depend on their caregivers for healthy internal development” (Colle, 2013, p. 7), setting the foundation for a healthy internal development that has a lasting effect on our physical, mental, and emotional systems as we grow and mature. This long-term effect “makes it important for adults that did not have the chance to develop a healthy attachment to learn how to form a healthy stable attachment” (Colle, 2013, p. 7).