Group Art Therapy Program for Refugees in Museum Settings

Forced migration is a worldwide crisis that presents a multitude of risk factors and needs. Refugees have to flee their countries as a result of violence, deprivation, persecution, war, or a threat to their lives (Van der Gucht, 2019). The process of pre-, during, and post-migration poses an accumulation of obstacles that reshape the trajectories of newcomers’ lives (Schouler-Ocak & Kastrup, 2018). Particularly, during post-migration and resettlement, refugees have to hold onto past experiences of trauma and displacement, while facing new stressors and barriers in their new host country. These experiences can impact newcomers’ emotional safety, cultural preservation, well-being, coping mechanisms, and ease of accessing mental health care (Goosen et al., 2011). With this in mind, existing art therapy programs currently serve a variety of populations including refugees and newcomers. Group art therapy in museum settings can present key therapeutic benefits that support refugees' emotional expression, identity preservation, cultural continuity, memory integration, and social connection. Therefore, this research will address the following question: how could group art therapy interventions conducted in a museum setting support the refugee resettlement process? A secondary research question will also be addressed, which is: what might a group art therapy intervention program that supports refugees’ well-being and resettlement process look like? Using Fraser & Galinsky’s (2010) first two steps of the intervention-based methodology this study integrates and synthesizes literary research with the researcher’s experiences at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and The Refugee Centre to propose a 12-week museum-based group art therapy program for refugees and newcomers. Limitations of the research are presented along with implications for practice and future research. Keywords: art therapy, museums, interventions, refugees, complex trauma, culture, acculturation, and resettlement