ART WORKS

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ART WORKS

• Using Art for HIV/ AIDS Advocacy, Education and
  Intervention

Allison Crawford, University of Toronto,
Department of Psychiatry
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UNESCO Culture and artUniversity of Toronto and
Global Partners

• Background  Art and culture can inspire hope and
  action as well as act as agent of advocacy,
  education and change in addressing challenges
  presented by the AIDS pandemic.
• UNESCOs Cultural Fields and Priorities
  Cultural diversity Tangible and intangible
  heritage Intercultural dialogue Arts and
  creativity Cultural Industry

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• Narrative
• Advocacy
• Education
• Intervention
• Cultural considerations
• Ethical considerations

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Narrative
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Advocacy

• To raise awareness (locally, nationally,
  internationally)
• To raise money
• To ensure rights and access to care for people
  living with HIV
• Sometimes art works are created and used in
  different contexts

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Education

• to transmit preventative messages and
  information
• to disseminate health information
• to connect people with appropriate resources and
  ensure ongoing bio-psycho-social care

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Intervention

• Narratives (both visual and verbal) are used in
  a number of psycho-social treatment approaches
  for people living with HIV/ AIDS
• Strong evidence base

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Body mapping

• Body mapping is a form of art and narrative
  therapy that has evolved into an innovative
  educational workshop designed to empower African
  women who are HIV positive.Based on a
  collaboration between the Canadian AIDS Treatment
  Information Exchange (CATIE) and the Regional
  Psychosocial Support Initiative (REPSSI) in
  southern Africa

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• My name is Frida Mdoe.
• I am from Hedaru village in Kilimanjaro. You can
  see that I have drawn Mt. Kilimanjaro. I have
  drawn the moon and stars as the light I have
  gotten from this workshop. I believe the
  knowledge I will get will help others who have
  not come here. Also, the knowledge will help to
  brighten my own life.
• When I finished Form 4 in 1992, I was selected to
  join a secretarial college in Tabora. After
  finishing the course I was asked to join the
  National Service. That was the Tanzanian system
  policy. After the National Service I went back
  home to say goodbye to my parents so I could come
  and look for a job in Dar es Salaam. I joined a
  company working in office machines and electrical
  equipment as a secretary. In 1998, I was married
  and in 1999 became pregnant and had a baby in
  October of that year by C-section. After the
  birth, I started falling sick and my husband
  advised me to stop working. In 2001, my husband
  took me to the Infection Disease Centre to have a
  chest test and I discovered I had TB. I took TB
  drugs and finished but my condition didn't
  change. I was still sick. My husband said they
  should test me at Temeka Hospital. That was when
  I discovered I was HIV positive. Both of us were.
  After that we decided to go to PASADA to be
  members and up until now we are getting treatment
  there.
• My power point is in my hands. In my hands I have
  drawn the bible. I am strong up until now and it
  is all out of God's love for me.
• My cloth says, "A wife is a gift. It is your
  responsibility to take care of her." I chose it
  because husbands who take care of their wives and
  give them good food and clothes are the ones who
  keep their wives. Other wives who do not look
  nice or keep the house nice will see the husband
  stray. They need to support each other in order
  to have unity.
• On my body map I have drawn a scar on my head. I
  had terrible eye pain when I was 10 years old. I
  was taken to several hospitals and had several
  medicines but they didn't work. After failing to
  get medicine, I got a traditional type of
  healing. They heated metal in the fire and placed
  it on my face. After that the pain was gone but
  the treatment left a pain by my eye.
• My message to the community would be, "Everything
  goes according to God's plan." My young sister
  would cry when she visited me after I told her I
  was HIV positive because she was afraid I was
  going to die and leave her. Last year my sister
  developed high blood pressure and in a short time
  she died. For me death comes from God's plan.
  Those who have HIV or those who do not will die.
  We are living here under the plan of God. I
  insist that those with HIV live positively.

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Intervention

• Helps to create an integrated, coherent
  understanding or representation of ones
  situation and experiences, leading to greater
  self-awareness, communicability of experience,
  articulation of feelings, increased sense of
  mastery over experience and a reduction in
  avoidance
• Identifies unhelpful thinking and gaps in
  knowledge (Can become a focus for education)

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Intervention

• Increases sense of community, connection and
  support and decreases shame, silence and
  isolation
• Provides a framework for looking at life outside
  of illness, and looking toward the future in a
  hopeful way

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Tracing Books

• Hand-held patient files
• Used to track wellness and illness
• Communication tool (self, physicians, family)

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Cultural Considerations

• Is the message culturally sensitive?
• What language(s) is it in?
• Does it take into account the worldview
  or explanatory model of those targeted?
• Will it be intelligible in this culture?
• Have people in this culture participated
  in constructing the message?

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Ethical Considerations

• Does the message do more good than harm?
• Does the message apply to all groups targeted?
• Does the message promote the autonomy of the
  artist, of the subjects represented?
• Whos story is it? Confidentiality
• Are there proceeds from the art? Where are they
  going?
• Representations produced in one context can
  have very different implications when
  transferred to another
• What are the outcomes? Are they measured?

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Workshop / Current Initiative

• How are narratives and images already being used
  in HIV initiatives on campus?
• Are there any conflicting cultural or ethical
  messages being conveyed? i.e., who created these
  images/ narratives? for which population?

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Workshop / Current Initiative

• Can narrative approaches help to understand more
  about this population and how to best engage
  them?i.e., as a research tool
• Can narrative approaches help understand what
  information this population needs, or help
  transmit information?i.e., as an educational
  tool

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Workshop / Current Initiative

• For those who enter into HIV testing or
  treatment, can narrative approaches be used to
  help people understand and deal with their
  illness (biologically, psychologically,
  socially)?i.e., as an intervention tool