Empowerment, quality of life and art with adults with disabilities, a descriptive analysis of an holistic arts approach

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis describes a holistic model for teaching art to adults with cognitive and/or psychiatric disabilities, and evaluates whether it empowers and enhances their quality of life. Grounded theory was used to generate valued indicators and categories from data collected over six years from eight participants belonging to a community arts group. This was used to describe the Holistic Arts Model that was then compared to other models of empowerment and quality of life. The research revealed that the model does empower and enhance quality of life. It also revealed issues such as the impact of poverty, and the divisions between empowerment and quality of life, that would be of value to any discussion on art and adults with disabilities. It is also useful in defining concepts of excellence and developing further theories and practices for teaching, learning and evaluation in art for this population.M.A