Research Festival
Art Therapy Workshop
Join us for a creative journey where art becomes a tool for emotional relief. In this workshop, participants will explore self-expression through various art forms, using provided materials such as paints, brushes, and canvases combied with meditation. Whether you’re new to art or an experienced creator, this session offers a safe space to process emotions, connect with others, and engage in open conversations. No artistic experience is needed—just come ready to express and explore through color and form.
In the sense of art therapy, my works in the summer show exhibition provide a spiritual dialogue space, giving the audience the opportunity to express, feel and release through art. Art, as a healing tool, can help the audience face their emotions, present those hidden pains and fears in a visual and emotional way, so as to achieve a self-release and purification effect.
At the Research Festival, I want to continue the common point of all my works at UAL - healing - by engaging with the public through workshops. In this woeshop, I collaborated with Hongyu Bu, a classmate from computational arts. We will lead participants to experience the healing effect of art through meditation and art creation. Encourage the audience to pay attention to the process of art creation and use art as a tool for emotional expression and psychological counseling, rather than an elitist "artist's patent".
In the RF24 experimental workshop in October, we designed a meditation-guided creative process, where Hongyu BU led the audience into a state of contemplation and creation, and then I shared my artistic experience. In the first half of the process, the audience was engaged in creation, showing a focused and serious attitude. In the second half, we hoped to explore the deep connection between art and personal emotions by guiding questions. However, the actual effect did not meet expectations, the discussion atmosphere was dull, and the audience's participation was not high. Jennet pointed out that the scope of the questions we asked was too broad, making it difficult for the audience to respond immediately. This feedback prompted me to re-examine our process design.
I realized that in the initial stage of the workshop, if the audience could think and create with questions, they would be more likely to actively share their emotions and insights in the discussion session. Especially for topics involving personal emotions, a relaxing and intimate atmosphere is needed, rather than a serious academic discussion environment. This setting can avoid the audience's reservations due to privacy concerns. At the same time, in order to allow different audiences to express their ideas, we can use questionnaires to allow the audience to express their personal feelings and insights through writing. This not only respects the privacy of participants, but also provides a more in-depth communication basis for subsequent discussions.
Art Therapy Workshop, Qianyi Liu and Hongyu Bu, Camberwell College, University of the Arts London, 2024