The impact of public art education on college students' mental health literacy.

Introduction: This study aims to explore the impact of public art education on the mental health literacy of College Students. Methods: Conducted over a four-month period, the intervention involved freshmen from a Chinese college, comparing 1,334 students in the experimental group with 1,139 in the control group. Data were collected through a self-developed questionnaire and a standardized mental health literacy scale before and after the intervention. Results: Results showed that the experimental group's overall mental health literacy score significantly increased from 64.051 pre-intervention to 79.260 post-intervention, while the control group showed no significant changes during the same period. The experimental group demonstrated significant improvements in their ability to identify psychological disorders, belief in receiving professional help, attitudes towards seeking appropriate help, and knowledge in seeking mental health information. Furthermore, the frequency of classroom interaction was positively correlated with improvements in mental health literacy (regression coefficient = 2.261***), highlighting the critical role of active participation in public art education settings. Conclusion: This study underscores the importance and effectiveness of implementing public art education in higher education and provides empirical support for future educational policies and practices.

The role of audiovisual congruence in aesthetic appreciation of contemporary music and visual art.

Does congruence between auditory and visual modalities affect aesthetic experience? While cross-modal correspondences between vision and hearing are well-documented, previous studies show conflicting results regarding whether audiovisual correspondence affects subjective aesthetic experience. Here, in collaboration with the Kentler International Drawing Space (NYC, USA), we depart from previous research by using music specifically composed to pair with visual art in the professionally-curated Music as Image and Metaphor exhibition. Our pre-registered online experiment consisted of 4 conditions: Audio, Visual, Audio-Visual-Intended (artist-intended pairing of art/music), and Audio-Visual-Random (random shuffling). Participants (N = 201) were presented with 16 pieces and could click to proceed to the next piece whenever they liked. We used time spent as an implicit index of aesthetic interest. Additionally, after each piece, participants were asked about their subjective experience (e.g., feeling moved). We found that participants spent significantly more time with Audio, followed by Audiovisual, followed by Visual pieces; however, they felt most moved in the Audiovisual (bi-modal) conditions. Ratings of audiovisual correspondence were significantly higher for the Audiovisual-Intended compared to Audiovisual-Random condition; interestingly, though, there were no significant differences between intended and random conditions on any other subjective rating scale, or for time spent. Collectively, these results call into question the relationship between cross-modal correspondence and aesthetic appreciation. Additionally, the results complicate the use of time spent as an implicit measure of aesthetic experience.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadian performing and creative artists: An interpretive descriptive study using the social-ecological model.

BACKGROUND: Public health restrictions during the Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Canada have substantially reduced the work and income of performing and creative artists. We aimed to understand how factors at the public policy, community, organizational, interpersonal and individual levels affected Canadian performing and creative artists' health and livelihood during the pandemic. METHODS: We interviewed 14 creative and performing artists from an academic hospital-based healthcare center in Toronto, Canada. In addition, we conducted secondary data analysis on an existing set of 17 transcribed interviews from a quality improvement study that included relevant information to answer the present study's research question. We applied an interpretive descriptive approach to our qualitative inquiry and used the social-ecological model (SEM) as our analytic framework. RESULTS: We identified factors at all levels of the SEM that tended to synergistically affect the health and livelihood of artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health restrictions and government financial assistance programs have downstream effects on other levels. During the pandemic, many artists sensed an overwhelming loss of community, financial instability, and limited access to healthcare; which in turn affected their health. For those who accessed financial assistance programs, the stability of income afforded time for rest without the stress of food insecurity or housing instability. CONCLUSIONS: Use of the SEM as an analytic framework reflects the multidirectional intricacy and dynamic interplay among factors operating within and across all five levels, bringing to light potential areas of improvement at various levels to strengthen resilience and reduce risk factors associated with artists' health and healthcare access. Findings also accentuated the fragility of precarious work that inundates the performing arts industry, which emphasizes the need for interventions and policies to address this issue. Such interventions might include financial support programs for artists, access to affordable healthcare services, and efforts to strengthen social support networks within the arts community.

Self-concept of the nursing profession among nursing students: An art-based qualitative analysis.

BACKGROUND: In general, nursing students' self-concept of nursing is associated with their professional competence. Arts-based pedagogical approaches offer a creative way of supporting nursing education that improves clinical practice and creates meaningful learning. PURPOSE: The aim of the study is to understand the professional self-concept of nursing students through their self-artwork. METHOD: A qualitative descriptive design from an arts-based critical perspective was applied to nursing students from an accelerated program for non-nursing BA graduates. The thematic analysis utilized the constant comparative analysis method. RESULTS: The study included 34 artworks created by 184 students. Three themes and 11 codes were identified. The themes are: "The question is why?"; "My story,"; and "Nursing is a value." The themes and codes reflect a naïve view of nursing self-concept, societal critique regarding the profession's poor image, and recognition of nursing as a feminist and transition tool, particularly among Arab women. Students expressed concerns about balancing professional commitments and their own needs. CONCLUSION: Use of artwork may help students express their professional self-concept, thoughts, feelings, and criticism. Nursing educators and leaders can use these insights to develop an education process adapted to the needs of students, professionals, and society.

Conversations in Content and Context: Can We Teach AI to Chat About Drawings?

An innovative chatbot incorporates a drawing tool allowing users to draw pictures that symbolise the nature of their chronic pain. Rather than simply ask 'What did you draw?" what if the chatbot could engage the user to provide insight into symbols and images related to pain and suffering? The system was tested on images that included features of clinical interest in a first step toward a chatbot able to 'see' and discuss visual input. Such a chatbot has the potential for retrospective and prospective applications. *Contains childhood sexual abuse references.

Art, meditation and cognitive science: a framework for museum-based community meditation programme during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused mandatory lockdowns worldwide, exacerbating mental health issues created by social isolation. Aimed to improve mental health and maintain engagement, the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) rapidly deployed an online programme called Unwind with SAM to engage the public with the museum's contemporary art collection coupled with meditation. The programme focused on the positive effect of arts on mental health, combined with the cognitive benefits of meditation by 'slow-looking' at artworks. This practice-based report reflects on the processes and explores the potential between art, contemplation and cognitive sciences. The first section outlines the current landscape of art and wellness approaches in museums. The second section explains the philosophical framework that guides the programme, alongside a breakdown of components and design rationale. The final part provides a critical reflection and concludes with recommendations for practitioners, managers and scientists to utilise the framework for designing future programmes.

Creating arts and crafting positively predicts subjective wellbeing.

Introduction: This study explored whether engagement with Creating Arts and Crafting (CAC) predicted subjective wellbeing and loneliness, above and beyond known sociodemographic predictors. Methods: Secondary data from 7,182 adults living in England from the Taking Part Survey (a 2019-2020 UK household survey of culture and sport participation) were analyzed. Hierarchical Linear regressions were used to explore the predictive effect of engagement with CAC on aspects of subjective wellbeing (anxiety, happiness, life satisfaction and a sense that life is worthwhile) and loneliness. Covariates included gender, Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), age group, health and employment status. Results: Engaging in CAC significantly predicted increased life satisfaction, a sense that life is worthwhile and happiness, above and beyond known sociodemographic predictors. Conclusion: Our study provides support for the wellbeing benefits of engagement with creating arts and crafting, and we suggest that this will be a useful tool at a public health level, noting that relative accessibility and affordability creating arts and crafting.

Digital Drawing Tools for Assessing Mental Health Conditions - A Scoping Review.

INTRODUCTION: Drawing tasks are an elementary component of psychological assessment in the evaluation of mental health. With the rise of digitalization not only in psychology but healthcare in general, digital drawing tools (dDTs) have also been developed for this purpose. This scoping review aims at summarizing the state of the art of dDTs available to assess mental health conditions in people above preschool age. METHODS: PubMed, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, CINAHL, and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection were searched for dDTs from 2000 onwards. The focus was on dDTs, which not only evaluate the final drawing, but also process data. RESULTS: After applying the search and selection strategy, a total of 37 articles, comprising unique dDTs, remained for data extraction. Around 75 % of these articles were published after 2014 and most of them target adults (86.5 %). In addition, dDTs were mainly used in two areas: tremor detection and assessment of cognitive states, utilizing, for example, the Spiral Drawing Test and the Clock Drawing Test. CONCLUSION: Early detection of mental diseases is an increasingly important field in healthcare. Through the integration of digital and art-based solutions, this area could expand into an interdisciplinary science. This review shows that the first steps in this direction have already been taken and that the possibilities for further research, e.g., on the optimized application of dDTs, are still open.

Using machine learning to predict judgments on Western visual art along content-representational and formal-perceptual attributes.

Art research has long aimed to unravel the complex associations between specific attributes, such as color, complexity, and emotional expressiveness, and art judgments, including beauty, creativity, and liking. However, the fundamental distinction between attributes as inherent characteristics or features of the artwork and judgments as subjective evaluations remains an exciting topic. This paper reviews the literature of the last half century, to identify key attributes, and employs machine learning, specifically Gradient Boosted Decision Trees (GBDT), to predict 13 art judgments along 17 attributes. Ratings from 78 art novice participants were collected for 54 Western artworks. Our GBDT models successfully predicted 13 judgments significantly. Notably, judged creativity and disturbing/irritating judgments showed the highest predictability, with the models explaining 31% and 32% of the variance, respectively. The attributes emotional expressiveness, valence, symbolism, as well as complexity emerged as consistent and significant contributors to the models' performance. Content-representational attributes played a more prominent role than formal-perceptual attributes. Moreover, we found in some cases non-linear relationships between attributes and judgments with sudden inclines or declines around medium levels of the rating scales. By uncovering these underlying patterns and dynamics in art judgment behavior, our research provides valuable insights to advance the understanding of aesthetic experiences considering visual art, inform cultural practices, and inspire future research in the field of art appreciation.

The practices of artist-entrepreneurs located outside Canada's creative hubs viewed through the lens of the pragmatic sociology of critique.

Artists-entrepreneurs struggle with the tension between their artistic and entrepreneurial values. Previous research on this tension focuses on urban creative hubs and shows the presence of politicians to create, with the artists, a structure constituted of investment formulas to ease this tension. Based on Boltanski and Thévenot's On Justification theory, our research focuses on the case of artist-entrepreneurs located outside Canada's creative hubs. The tension between artistic and entrepreneurial values is expressed as a tension between the inspired and market worlds, which is managed through the civic world in Canadian creative hubs. The results of 50 semi-structured interviews with non-urban Canadian artist-entrepreneurs reveal that politicians are less implicated in these regional cultural industries. In order to manage the tension between artistic and entrepreneurial values, artists themselves are developing individual and collective investment formulas to create structure in the cultural industries that compensates for the low-level of involvement by politicians. Thus, we identify that the tension between the inspired and market worlds is managed through the presence of the projective world in the case of Canada's non-urban artist-entrepreneurs.

Les artistes­entrepreneurs sont aux prises avec une tension entre leurs valeurs artistiques et entrepreneuriales. Les recherches étudiant cette tension se concentrent sur les pôles de créativité et montrent la présence du politique pour créer, conjointement avec les artistes, une structure mettant en place des formules d'investissement permettant d'apaiser ladite tension. En prenant appui sur la théorie de la justification de Boltanski et Thévenot, cette recherche s'intéresse au cas des artistes­entrepreneurs situés hors des pôles canadiens de la créativité. La tension entre les valeurs artistiques et entrepreneuriales se décline comme une tension entre les mondes de l'inspiration et marchand et celle­ci est gérée grâce au monde civique dans les pôles canadiens de la créativité. Les résultats de 50 entrevues semi­structurées avec des artistes­entrepreneurs hors des pôles canadiens de la créativité pointent vers une implication moindre du politique dans les industries culturelles. Afin de gérer la tension entre les valeurs artistiques et entrepreneuriales, ces artistes se dotent de formules d'investissement individuelles et collectives palliant ainsi la faible implication du politique dans l'élaboration d'une structure pour les industries culturelles. Ainsi, afin de permettre la gestion de la tension entre les mondes de l'inspiration et marchand, on relève la présence du monde des projets dans le cas des artistes­entrepreneurs hors des pôles canadiens de la créativité.

Experimental insights into cognition, motor skills, and artistic expertise in Paleolithic art.

The production of Paleolithic art represents one of the most intricate technical and cognitive endeavors of Homo sapiens, marked by its profound antiquity and vast temporal and spatial framework. Despite its significance, there have been no prior studies aimed at understanding the cognitive and motor skills linked to the creation of realistic images characteristic of this artistic cycle. This research integrates archaeology and experimental psychology, premised on the assumption that the neurological basis of Anatomically Modern Humans has not changed substantially since the Upper Paleolithic. This work employs an innovative interdisciplinary approach, utilizing psychometric tests and drawing and engraving tasks monitored by motion-sensing gloves, to compare the performance of experts and non-experts in visual arts when faced with challenges akin to those of Upper Paleolithic artistic production. The results revealed that expertise in visual arts is linked to enhanced spatial abilities and specific patterns in drawing from memory. Additionally, both experts and non-experts displayed similar motor skills when engraving using Paleolithic techniques, suggesting that these techniques required specialized training in the contemporary experts. In conclusion, this research deepens our understanding of the processes involved in Upper Paleolithic artistic production.

Unveiling the Potential of ChatGPT and YOLOv7 for Evaluating Children's Emotions Using Their Artistic Expressions.

Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have sparked considerable interest in their potential applications across various healthcare domains. One promising prospect is leveraging these generative models to accurately predict children's emotions by combining computer vision and natural language processing techniques. However, understanding children's emotional states based on their artistic expressions is equally crucial. To address this challenge, this paper presents a pipelined architecture comprising YOLOv7 and the powerful GPT-3.5 Turbo language model, where YOLOv7 is employed for object detection using art therapy imaging annotations, while GPT-3.5 interprets the sketches. After rigorously evaluating the proposed framework through a series of comprehensive experiments, we observed that our model achieved high confidence scores for both object detection and emotion interpretation. The robust performance of the proposed framework not only aids in explaining children's art but also provides valuable insights for parents and therapists. This capability enables them to better understand children's emotional states based on their artistic expressions, ultimately facilitating improved support and care.

The Value of Drawing Practice in Plastic Surgery Training.

ABSTRACT: No specialty has such close relationship with art as plastic surgery among medicine. Both are intensely creative processes that combine technology with utmost dexterity and now are undervalued in the medical education. Art is a reservoir that provides a surgeon with creativity and improved dexterity. It is beneficial for the surgeons to practice drawing, for it can bring passion and inspiration, enhance observation and imagination, improve dexterity and accuracy, and help keep a good relation with patients. In some way, plastic surgery is art and plastic surgeon is artist.

Broadening the View of Holistic Care: Integrating Arts and Humanities Into Physician Assistant Education.

INTRODUCTION: The integration of arts and humanities (A&H) into physician assistant (PA) preclinical curriculum may enhance student performance and improve their patient rapport. Arts and humanities content could promote the personal and professional qualities we desire in clinicians including competence, compassion, and empathy. The aim of this research was to determine what PA students report learning from A&H modules designed to foster personal insight and perspective-taking. METHODS: The "Introduction of Humanities & Arts into Physician Assistant Education" (IHAPAE) project is an intercampus collaboration between 2 Midwest Universities. The IHAPAE faculty collaboratively created and delivered A&H-based modules within first-year communication courses. Two cohorts of PA students (N = 130) participated in modules and subsequently attended exploratory focus groups to elicit their perceptions of the A&H curriculum. RESULTS: Using a constructivist grounded theory approach for data analysis, we found that PA students perceived multiple benefits. Specifically, module content promoted reflection and stress reduction, improved their continuity of care notes, provided utility in cultivating empathy in patient communication, and introduced students to A&H approaches they could recommend to patients. DISCUSSION: The process model that emerged from student perceptions fits well with existing emotional regulation theory and provides empirical evidence for cultivation of empathy and patient-centeredness. Given the positive outcomes of our project, PA programs should consider the value of incorporating the A&H activities into their curriculum to enhance the student experience and develop essential provider attributes and skills.

Evaluation of Children's Drawings as a Measure of Dental Anxiety Before and After Oral Health Education.

BACKGROUND: Drawing is an effective tool for evaluating dental anxiety and communicating with children. AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate children's drawings as a measure of dental anxiety with two different assessment methods and their possible relationship with age, gender, and previous dental visits before and after education. METHODS: A total of 129 children aged 4-6 years old were requested to draw a picture of the dentist and dental office perception before and after a 20-minute dental education at selected Kindergartens. Drawings were evaluated according to Child Drawing: Hospital (CD: H) and Massoni methodologies. RESULTS: The difference in drawing groups between before and after oral health education was found to be statistically significant which meant children had less anxiety after education (P = 0.001). A statistical difference was observed in the scores before and after the education in the group of children who had previous dental visits and those who did not (P = 0.001). Statistically significant differences were observed in both groups of children who had previous dental visits and those who did not (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Oral health education at younger ages is effective in overcoming dental anxiety and improving the positivity of dental perception. Drawing is a suitable assessment tool for learning about the child's notions and feelings.