ABSTRACT
This chapter was developed in the scope of the AMASS project, between May 2021 and November 2021, and explored the work between researchers and artists from the Association of Teachers of Visual Expression and Communication (APECV) with social and health workers and clients of two care centres from one rural and one urban area in Northern Portugal to experiment with art practices as relational tools.
Ethnographic research, participatory action research and arts-based methods were combined to design and implement the activities. Performance artists Abel and Dori and plastic arts artists Juliana and Carlos were invited to take part in the research, taking into account their previous work in APECV with people with disabilities. During the activities, other artists were also invited to collaborate in workshops that took place during the experiments. The main direction from APECV was that the project should be collaborative and all people involved should participate in the design, planning and evaluation of the activities. Outcomes of the experiments revealed that arts activities were beneficial to both the host organisations and the participants. Follow-up activities such as festivals and exhibitions disseminated the project results with larger audiences.
