Lost in Translation

Abstract

Reflecting a wider preoccupation with 'evidence-based-policy', the effectiveness of community-based arts practice designed to promote individual and community level health and well-being is in the spotlight. Evidence is said to remain elusive despite the proliferation of initiatives and government investment. Responses to this issue can broadly be characterized as health perspectives (calling for more scientific approaches to evaluation research that go beyond anecdote and opinion) and arts perspectives (concerned about reductive measures and narrowly prescribed social outcomes). This article seeks to advance an intersectoral dialogue by highlighting the tensions within present approaches and canvassing alternative frameworks.

Arts practices in unreasonable doubt? Reflections on understandings of arts practices in healthcare contexts

“…Putland (2008) identifies the risk of an “eclipse of art” as a consequence of different knowledge systems competing to dominate discussion of practices. The possibility of diminishing arts practices to a subservient role can be reduced if these knowledge systems and their fields of operation are recognised.…”

“…When understood as a practice of power, it is easy to understand why EBM gives rise to a tension in the articulation of arts practices in healthcare settings. This tension is discussed in relation to arts practices in community healthcare settings by Putland (2008), who highlights the preoccupation by health advocates with establishing evidence based research and arts advocates that are concerned with the encroachment of reductive measures and narrowly defined objectives for arts practice.…”

“…He suggests that these practices might be best understood using an anthropological approach informed by medical humanities. Putland (2008) asks what we want from evidence. She claims that we are looking for evidence that will not surprise us, to confirm what we already know, and suggests an alternate philosophical and interdisciplinary approach that can reconceptualise questions to create new knowledge.…”

Social circus and health equity: Exploring the national social circus program in Ecuador

“…As noted by Putland (2008), community arts activities operate principally across the micro and mezzo domains, seeking to influence social supports, trust and community engagement as pathways to improving mental and physical health (Berkman & Kawachi, 2000;Wilkinson & Marmot, 2003), and there is little agreement on how to address the macro factors. Indeed, how to link individual health to improved health equity is controversial (Baum, 2002;Matarasso, 1997;VicHealth, 2003;White, 2006).…”

“…While such claims constitute the rationale for social circus programs, there is very little scholarship on the impact of social circus on health -and health equity. The question of exactly how arts can contribute to health promotion (Georgeff, Lewis, & Rosenberg, 2009;Hamilton, Hinks, & Petticrew, 2003;Putland, 2008), and, indeed, to global health equity (Clift, Camic, & Daykin, 2010) has increasingly been posed, however, not yet explicitly with respect to circus.…”