The NEA Caregiving Research Lab at ASU focuses on the use of participatory arts involving caregivers and those they care for together. Alongside the Lab’s research activities, we develop collaborative research and practice frameworks to help guide others working at the intersection of the arts, caregiving, and research. We look at larger questions of implementation and translation science that inform the cultivation of cross-sector partnerships, allowing these findings to travel from the lab to the settings where they will do the most good. Finally, we highlight infrastructural considerations and resources necessary to support the scientists, artists, humanists and community partners who wish to work together through effective and creative health collaborations.
Current projects
Participatory theatre for families of children with special needs
Liz Reifsnider and Stephani Etheridge Woodson, Co-PIs
A multi-week theater experience in partnership with Childsplay Theatre Company in which caregivers collaborate with their children on creative exercises and activities delivered to them in monthly imagination boxes. Exercises will center around the theater studio praxis which draws on a multi symbol system of visual art, sound, movement, and storytelling. The project will work to support joy building, creativity, and emotional wellbeing in the caregiver and child relationship.
Technology-enhanced narrative expression for caregivers of people living with cancer
Shelby Langer, PI
Caring for a loved one with cancer can be stressful. Caregivers often report feeling overwhelmed. Sharing thoughts and feelings about stressful events through writing or talking has been shown to be helpful for people diagnosed with cancer – the patients. This study assesses whether a 4-session expressive writing program delivered by videoconference is helpful for their caregivers as well.
Music-based intervention for veterans with PTSD and their family members
David Coon, PI
The development of a new music-based intervention for veterans with PTSD and their family members (caregivers or care partners who are often their spouses, partners or siblings).
The opinions expressed in materials on this website are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of the National Endowment for the Arts Office of Research & Analysis or the National Endowment for the Arts. The Arts Endowment does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in these materials and is not responsible for any consequences of its use. This NEA Research Lab is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (Award #: 1862894-38-C-20, 1906811-38-22).