Art through pain: the panacea

Deposited with permission of Double DialoguesThis association between public pain and art or culture has taken an interesting turn suggesting that the catharsis experienced through seeing or reading about pain as imagined by artists, can also be experienced when art is applied, as it were, to real life pain experienced by ordinary people. There is a necessary connection here between a cathartic response to pain expressed or imagined through art and the therapeutic use of art to assuage real pain – or what seems to be pain. The corollary is that not only can art assuage pain, maybe even something resembling art can. As a consequence, arts intervention programs for marginalised people or those in marginalised communities are being implemented widely. Griffith University now uses the term Applied Theatre for both an academic program and a research center, both of which focus in part on this area. This use of ‘arts engagement’ to cure or save extends beyond individuals to communities. In the past few years there has been exponential growth in arts-led community recovery through the pursuit of what is now described as "wellness" or empowerment