The Effect of Art Education on Social and Emotional Well-Being for Neurologically Atypical Individuals

Group: Amy Cho ’22, Clare Crescimanno ’23, Evan DeTurk ’23, Irene Kim ’23

Community Partner: Arts Council of Princeton

Our group worked in collaboration with the Arts Council of Princeton on their Adapted Art programme to identify the effects of ‘Adapted Art’ classes on the social and emotional well-being of neurologically atypical individuals. We provided critical reviews of best-practices in similar programs around the world and summarized a range of existing literature on alternative methods and materials for the adapted art classroom.

We had the opportunity to sit down (via Zoom, of course) with two current Adapted Art Program instructors, Shannon Moriarty and Barbara DiLorenzo, to learn more about how the program is run, who it serves, and what benefits it aims to afford its participants.

Following our interview with the Adapted Art instructors, we conducted research and created an annotated bibliography of possible alternative materials and methods that could be used in Adapted Art classes, the effect of art-making on the social and emotional well-being of neuroatypical individuals, and similar adapted art programs.

The following graphic provides a visual summary of our findings. Click here to expand.

Additionally, we created a memorandum of critical reflections, connecting our findings to other concepts in Medical Anthropology.