Art Therapy and new conversations

Greetings!  One of the most delightful parts of my work at SJSU as the Art Librarian is to visit the Art Building on Tuesday evenings when the semester is in session.  The department has a speaker series that happens weekly from 5-6 (Room 133) and then from 6 p.m. on, student art exhibits are in the galleries.

I can't tell you how amazing it is to see the work of these emerging talents--you just have to come some Tuesday night.  You might see work by a photographer, or a sculptor, or a digital/spatial installation that will have you understanding what is meant by the term digital/spatial art. Don't forget to over to the Industrial Studies building too though, where the glass shop is and another student gallery is located.

Last night's presentation by Richard Whittaker gave me many things to think about, but two in particular I will share with you here:

1.  His magazine, Works and Conversations, is a treasure trove of information on Bay Area artists.  He has conducted interviews with artists like Viola Frey, Carl Cheng, Richard Berger...so many!  See for yourself!  http://www.conversations.org/search.php?id=Artist

As your alleged art librarian, I can't believe I didn't know about this magazine before and will be adding to my repertoire of search sources, as well as sharing it with my Art Library tribe, ARLIS.

2.  Besides being a writer and magazine editor, Whittaker is also a trained clinical psychologist.  When I read about his background before hearing his presentation last night and then saw images of his work and then the magazines he has produced, the question that came to my mind was about Art as Therapy.  Richard kindly took a few minutes to talk with me after his presentation and I am about to post the questions we talked about here:

Bibliometrics of Art Therapy--what is the future of the field of Art Therapy

From the librarian side of the desk, I have had many students over the years ask for sources on Art Therapy and/or Art Therapy as a profession.  The type of resources seem skimpy to me, and I am wondering why that is and the future direction of this field.

Here's why I say it is skimpy.  In the PsychInfo database, which is the Great Big Book of Everything as far as journal literature in Psychology, the term Art Therapy has only been in use as a descriptor since 1973.

Here's how the Thesaurus in PsychInfo defines and breaks down this term:

"Therapy that uses the creative work of clients for emotional expression, sublimation, achievement, and to reveal underlying conflicts."

    Broader Terms Creative Arts Therapy
    Related Terms Educational Therapy, Movement Therapy, Recreation Therapy

Choosing the phrase Art Therapy as a descriptor retrieves 3,789 entries.

I'm going to apple/orange this next example since I should choose a "therapy" as a parallel search but the next search coming to my mind is Motivation, which retrieves 41,619 entries.

Well, here's a contrast:  the phrase  "Eye Movement Desensitization Therapy" is tagged to 1,085 entries, but that term has only been in use in this database since 1997.

Hmm.

So that's a quick trip into a bibliometric look at the impact art therapy journal literature...another way to look at it would be to see how widely held are the journal of this field, such as Art Therapy, which sits behind the stern paywall of Taylor and Francis, or other titles like the British Journal International Journal of Art Therapy, which turns out also to be a paywalled Taylor and Francis title.

I haven't looked at subject headings and holdings in WorldCAT, or I could also just look for a lit review on the "state of art therapy"  as a profession on art therapy organizations websites and in the databases...but for now, I invite your questions and thoughts about Artists as Art Therapists.