Social Work and the Arts

Social Work and the Arts: Expanding Horizons is a collection of writings that explores how expressive methods are used in social work education, practice, research, and community action. Edited by Shelley Cohen Konrad and Michal Sela-Amit, the book aims to answer the question: What do the arts offer social work education, research, and practice?

This query is woven throughout the four sections of the book: first, on the various ways the arts are used in social work education; second, an examination of art-based social work research; third, a compilation of narratives by social workers who are artists in their own right; and finally, the future of the social work profession and its relationship to the arts.

Written by authors from diverse backgrounds, each with a unique perspective on the benefits of the arts in their respective areas of expertise, Social Work and the Arts is a must-read for anyone interested in the arts and social work and for those who are just beginning to explore its relevance in the field.

Shelley Cohen Konrad, PhD, LCSW, FNAP is the Director of the Center for Excellence in Collaborative Education and a social work professor at the University of New England. She graduated from Boston University, received an MSW and PhD from Simmons University, and is a Distinguished Scholar and Fellow in the National Academies of Practice and the Social Work Academy. She is a prolific writer and editor. Her book Child and Family Practice: A Relational Perspective, first and second editions, is used in classrooms around the country. She lives on the coast of Maine.

Michal Sela-Amit, PhD, is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work in Los Angeles. She received BA and MA degrees in social work summa cum laude from the University of Haifa, Israel, and a PhD from the University of Southern California. She specializes in working with children, youth, and families, and teaches advanced practice courses in the Master of Social Work program at the University of Southern California. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Preface
Introduction

Part I. Art & Education: Its Many Forms

Chapter 1: Worth a Thousand Words: A Bio-cognitive-spiritual Framework for Arts in Social Work Education
Peter Szto

Chapter 2: Art in Translation: Addressing Challenging Emotions from Classroom to Practice
Shelley Cohen Konrad & Michal Sela-Amit

Chapter 3: Expressive Arts Within a Liberation Psychology Framework in Field Education
Rafael Angulo

Chapter 4: Creative Arts in Social Work Education: 'Good Ideas', Domains, and Activities
Lori Power

Chapter 5: Social Work & the Arts: Through the Student Lens
Emily Frumkin, Brianna Lear, Jennifer Schoch, Sydney Siegel, Shefali Dutt, & Max Deeb

Part II. Arts & Research: Learning With and From Each Other

Chapter 6: A Vision for Arts-Based Social Work Research
Rogério M. Pinto, Ephrat Huss, & Mimi V. Chapman

Chapter 7: Affinity between the Aims of Social Work and the Mechanisms of Arts-Based Research
Ephrat Huss

Chapter 8: Conducting Online Research in the Era of COVID: Theater-Based Methods to Study HIV-Stigma
Marc Arthur & Rogério M. Pinto

Part III. Practice In Community: The Arts & Social Work

Chapter 9: Creating Comics on the Curb
Katy Finch

Chapter 10: Coming Fully into the Present: How the Arts Have Shaped My Social Work Practice
Clay Graybeal

Chapter 11: A Vision for Engaging the Arts in Social Work Practice
Brian L. Kelly, Carrie Lanza, Raphael Travis, & Taylor Ellis

Chapter 12: Building and Repairing through the Arts
Nesrien Abu Ghazaleh, Osvaldo Heredia, Eltje Bos

Chapter 13: "When I Hold the Door for You"
Maya Williams

Part IV: Foresightful Epilogue

Chapter 14: Four Ways the Arts Can Help Social Work Be More Future Ready and Future-Engaged
Laura Nissen

Continuing the Conversation: An Epilogue
Shelley Cohen Konrad & Michal Sela-Amit

Addenda

Realm of the Dead: An Installation Performance
Rogério M. Pinto

The Calling Commentary and Script
Clay Graybeal