Far apart but close at heart: How do arts organisations in Latin America support the mental health of young people online during a global pandemic?
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: Sch of Medicine & Dentistry
Abstract
Background
Research shows that pandemics can trigger mental distress (including depression and anxiety) particularly in young people. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgent problem for mental health in young people, especially those living in large cities and already facing challenges linked to poor mental health. Community arts organisations play a vital role in promoting mental wellbeing, by supporting young people using specific art forms. Through current research, we have formed strong links with five arts organisations in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru). The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting social distancing measures have forced these organisations to move their activities online to ensure that they continue to support vulnerable young people through this time of crisis. This ongoing situation provides an ideal opportunity to study how arts organisations are re-inventing their programmes to continue supporting young people during a global pandemic. This includes examining the impact of these changes on arts workers, and how young people are experiencing this new way of connecting with their peers, arts organisations and communities.
Objectives
The overall aim is to explore how arts organisations (in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá and Lima) are using online platforms to support the mental health of young people during a global pandemic, and how young people and arts workers experience this change. Specifically, we aim to:
1) Examine how arts organisations have adapted their activities to use online platforms due to COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures
2) Explore how this shift to online activities is experienced by art workers
3) Explore how this shift to online activities is experienced by participants (aged 18-24)
4) Understand how young people are dealing with the changes in their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic
5) Build research capacity in community arts organisations
6) Strengthen an existing network of five community arts organisations in Latin America
Methods
Six distinct activities will address the project aim and objectives. We will collect data to examine how each arts organisation has moved their activities online due to the COVID-19 lockdown (Activity 1), including how activities were set up and used. We will use routinely available records and interviews with key people in the arts organisations. At each arts organisation, we will conduct 10 interviews with stakeholders and arts workers (Activity 2), and 10 interviews with participants of the organisation (Activity 3), asking how they have experienced the shift to online activities. An online survey with a larger number of participants will explore specific experiences raised in the interviews. Each arts organisation will implement a creative workshop with 5-10 participants (Activity 4) based on a specific art form. These workshops will produce a creative output, such as a digital play, a rap, or choreography, to narrate young people's experiences of how COVID-19 and social distancing measures affected their lives and how they dealt with this. We will train researchers from arts organisations where necessary (Activity 5), and support this existing network of organisations to continue sharing knowledge and experiences (Activity 6).
Expected results
This project will lead to new knowledge that will help arts organisations and others like them, to respond to future emergencies so that they can seamlessly continue to support the mental health of young people, even through a global pandemic. As we expect that these changes will continue when the pandemic subsides, our findings will therefore inform how arts organisations promote mental wellbeing into the future to reduce the burden of common mental disorders for young people. We will disseminate the findings and creative outputs to ensure wide impact and beneficiaries in our partner countries and beyond.
Research shows that pandemics can trigger mental distress (including depression and anxiety) particularly in young people. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgent problem for mental health in young people, especially those living in large cities and already facing challenges linked to poor mental health. Community arts organisations play a vital role in promoting mental wellbeing, by supporting young people using specific art forms. Through current research, we have formed strong links with five arts organisations in four Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru). The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting social distancing measures have forced these organisations to move their activities online to ensure that they continue to support vulnerable young people through this time of crisis. This ongoing situation provides an ideal opportunity to study how arts organisations are re-inventing their programmes to continue supporting young people during a global pandemic. This includes examining the impact of these changes on arts workers, and how young people are experiencing this new way of connecting with their peers, arts organisations and communities.
Objectives
The overall aim is to explore how arts organisations (in Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá and Lima) are using online platforms to support the mental health of young people during a global pandemic, and how young people and arts workers experience this change. Specifically, we aim to:
1) Examine how arts organisations have adapted their activities to use online platforms due to COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures
2) Explore how this shift to online activities is experienced by art workers
3) Explore how this shift to online activities is experienced by participants (aged 18-24)
4) Understand how young people are dealing with the changes in their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic
5) Build research capacity in community arts organisations
6) Strengthen an existing network of five community arts organisations in Latin America
Methods
Six distinct activities will address the project aim and objectives. We will collect data to examine how each arts organisation has moved their activities online due to the COVID-19 lockdown (Activity 1), including how activities were set up and used. We will use routinely available records and interviews with key people in the arts organisations. At each arts organisation, we will conduct 10 interviews with stakeholders and arts workers (Activity 2), and 10 interviews with participants of the organisation (Activity 3), asking how they have experienced the shift to online activities. An online survey with a larger number of participants will explore specific experiences raised in the interviews. Each arts organisation will implement a creative workshop with 5-10 participants (Activity 4) based on a specific art form. These workshops will produce a creative output, such as a digital play, a rap, or choreography, to narrate young people's experiences of how COVID-19 and social distancing measures affected their lives and how they dealt with this. We will train researchers from arts organisations where necessary (Activity 5), and support this existing network of organisations to continue sharing knowledge and experiences (Activity 6).
Expected results
This project will lead to new knowledge that will help arts organisations and others like them, to respond to future emergencies so that they can seamlessly continue to support the mental health of young people, even through a global pandemic. As we expect that these changes will continue when the pandemic subsides, our findings will therefore inform how arts organisations promote mental wellbeing into the future to reduce the burden of common mental disorders for young people. We will disseminate the findings and creative outputs to ensure wide impact and beneficiaries in our partner countries and beyond.
Organisations
- Queen Mary University of London (Lead Research Organisation)
- La Plaza Theater (Collaboration)
- Redes da Maré (Collaboration)
- La Familia Ayara Foundation (Collaboration)
- Fundacion Batuta (Collaboration)
- Create Foundation Vale la Pena (Project Partner)
- Mare Development Networks (Project Partner)
- La Familia Artistic & Social Foundation (Project Partner)
- Batuta National Foundation (Project Partner)
- La Plaza Theatre (Project Partner)
| Title | Five short videos resulting from arts workshops within the project Far Apart but Close at Heart Latin America |
| Description | Each of the five partner organisations created a short video as the creative outputs of the series of arts workshops within the project Far Apart but Close at Heart Latin America. The outputs were inspired by participants feelings of the pandemic, including an exchange of perspectives between the different countries. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | Videos were partially presented in a conference which sparked requests for further information from non-involved organisations. |
| URL | https://peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/en/projects/far-apart-but-close-at-heart-latin-america/ |
| Title | Short film: Presentes |
| Description | This 20-minute film is a result of informal discussions between Carlos Ormeña Palma (director) and young people participating in the project Far Apart but Close at Heart. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The film will be released in May 2022. |
| URL | https://peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/en/projects/far-apart-but-close-at-heart-latin-america/ |
| Description | Presentation of Policy Brief with Early Findings/Recommendations to The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Far Apart UK: Looking beyond lockdown to understand how UK arts organisations can continue to support young people's wellbeing during COVID-19 |
| Amount | £286,180 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/V015613/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2020 |
| End | 12/2021 |
| Title | Qualitative semi-structured interview questionnaire applied on arts workers and young people |
| Description | Qualitative topic guide for in-depth interviews conducted with 100 people from 5 partnering arts organisations ( arts workers and young people engaged in creative activities) about the impact of a shift to the digital on arts workers and young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Capacity building: arts coordinators from partner organisations conducted interviews with young people after receiving training from the research team. Data analysis: the topic guide was used to collect key information around young people's and arts workers' experiences around one important consequence of restrictions imposed by the pandemic - the transition from in-person to online activities - allowing for qualitative analysis. |
| Title | Quantitative questionnaire: the impact of a shift to the digital on young people |
| Description | Survey (quantitative questionnaire) applied to young people engaged in creative activities led by our 5 arts partnering organisations ( 302 responses in total) |
| Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Capacity building: arts coordinators from partner organisations contributed to the development of the questionnaire and coordinated its application, with support from the research team. Data analysis: the questionnaire was used to test findings from the qualitative interviews with a larger sample. |
| Title | Dataset of online survey: Far Apart Latin America |
| Description | The dataset is composed of 302 surveys applied to young people that participate in the partner arts organisations. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Findings show that arts activities were successful in producing positive effects in young people, although connecting online had several differences when compared to in-person activities, such as losing physical contact which affects how young people interact and communicate with each other. |
| Title | Dataset of semi-structured interviews - Far Apart Latin America |
| Description | The dataset is composed of transcriptions of 100 semi-structured interviews conducted with staff and young people that participate in the partner arts organisations. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Final thematic analysis is still in the process of being finalised by the research team, but initial findings suggest these were the main themes of young people's experience with the shift to online: - Practical problems needed to be overcome - Staff mediates the online experience - Online arts activities were helpful in a stressful context (Covid-19 pandemic) - Online arts activities competed with other online activities - Going online allowed for an increase in the reach of activities and new learnings - Disruptive changes in life interfered with the enjoyment of activities - Connecting online is not the same as face-to-face |
| Description | Far Apart collaboration with arts partners |
| Organisation | Fundacion Batuta |
| Country | Colombia |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The research team brings expertise and experience in conducting research on youth mental healh. For this project it has provided training on qualitative research methods and support to conduct the data collection and analysis, building up research capacity in partner organisations. Based in prior experiences, the research team also organised a series of workshops to promote knowledge exchange around partners' strategies to cope with the pandemic, allowing for an effective mutual learning. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The arts partners bring their experience in re-inventing their programmes to continue supporting young people during a global pandemic. They shared materials and contacted staff and young people for the completion of the research. |
| Impact | - Joint presentation for ITAC Think Tank 'Arts And Social Transformation In Latin America: Building Mental Health, Resilience And Recovery Through Art'. - Creative videos on young people's feelings towards the pandemic - Short film on 'Presentes' directed by Carlos Ormeña Palma It is a multidisciplinary collaboration, involving the following disciplines: arts, music education, performing arts, psychology, psychiatry, youth studies |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Far Apart collaboration with arts partners |
| Organisation | La Familia Ayara Foundation |
| Country | Colombia |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The research team brings expertise and experience in conducting research on youth mental healh. For this project it has provided training on qualitative research methods and support to conduct the data collection and analysis, building up research capacity in partner organisations. Based in prior experiences, the research team also organised a series of workshops to promote knowledge exchange around partners' strategies to cope with the pandemic, allowing for an effective mutual learning. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The arts partners bring their experience in re-inventing their programmes to continue supporting young people during a global pandemic. They shared materials and contacted staff and young people for the completion of the research. |
| Impact | - Joint presentation for ITAC Think Tank 'Arts And Social Transformation In Latin America: Building Mental Health, Resilience And Recovery Through Art'. - Creative videos on young people's feelings towards the pandemic - Short film on 'Presentes' directed by Carlos Ormeña Palma It is a multidisciplinary collaboration, involving the following disciplines: arts, music education, performing arts, psychology, psychiatry, youth studies |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Far Apart collaboration with arts partners |
| Organisation | La Plaza Theater |
| Country | Peru |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | The research team brings expertise and experience in conducting research on youth mental healh. For this project it has provided training on qualitative research methods and support to conduct the data collection and analysis, building up research capacity in partner organisations. Based in prior experiences, the research team also organised a series of workshops to promote knowledge exchange around partners' strategies to cope with the pandemic, allowing for an effective mutual learning. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The arts partners bring their experience in re-inventing their programmes to continue supporting young people during a global pandemic. They shared materials and contacted staff and young people for the completion of the research. |
| Impact | - Joint presentation for ITAC Think Tank 'Arts And Social Transformation In Latin America: Building Mental Health, Resilience And Recovery Through Art'. - Creative videos on young people's feelings towards the pandemic - Short film on 'Presentes' directed by Carlos Ormeña Palma It is a multidisciplinary collaboration, involving the following disciplines: arts, music education, performing arts, psychology, psychiatry, youth studies |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Far Apart collaboration with arts partners |
| Organisation | Redes da Maré |
| Country | Brazil |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | The research team brings expertise and experience in conducting research on youth mental healh. For this project it has provided training on qualitative research methods and support to conduct the data collection and analysis, building up research capacity in partner organisations. Based in prior experiences, the research team also organised a series of workshops to promote knowledge exchange around partners' strategies to cope with the pandemic, allowing for an effective mutual learning. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The arts partners bring their experience in re-inventing their programmes to continue supporting young people during a global pandemic. They shared materials and contacted staff and young people for the completion of the research. |
| Impact | - Joint presentation for ITAC Think Tank 'Arts And Social Transformation In Latin America: Building Mental Health, Resilience And Recovery Through Art'. - Creative videos on young people's feelings towards the pandemic - Short film on 'Presentes' directed by Carlos Ormeña Palma It is a multidisciplinary collaboration, involving the following disciplines: arts, music education, performing arts, psychology, psychiatry, youth studies |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Final session with young participants from arts workshops of the project Far Apart but Close at Heart Latin America |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | The session presented artistic productions created by participants of each partner organisation (Familia Ayara, Redes da Maré, La Plaza, Crear Vale la Pena, and Batuta Foundation) and allowed for young people participating in the different organisations to meet. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://us06web.zoom.us/rec/share/Pb0XnHAI3ssFp_LYewLlAO5pPZ_m6NiJLWY9WAuv0clBfPwWF238V4Z-JvZmJiom.0... |
| Description | How are young people experiencing and dealing with the changes in their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic? Findings from creative arts workshops in four Latin American countries. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was a oral presentation at The International Association of Adolescent Health (IAAH) World Congress 2021 to share findings from arts-based workshops in three Latin American countries carried out as part of the Far Apart but Close at Heart Latin America project. The findings demonstrated that arts-based methods are a powerful way of engaging young people in research and that it also creates safe spaces for young people to share experiences, promoting their wellbeing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://iaah.org/events-conferences/iaah-world-congress/ |
| Description | International Teaching Artists Collaborative (ITAC) event: "Building Mental Health Resilience and Recovery through Art" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Think Tank bilingual event. Stefan Priebe and Paul Heritage talked about 'Arts and Social Transformation in Latin America: Building Mental Health Resilience and Recovery Through Art', followed by more open discussions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | On Promoting Wellbeing Through Music: A Conversation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof. Paul Heritage (Far Apart, Co-I) mediated a conversation with María Claudía Parías-Duran, President of Fundación Nacional Batuta, addressing the power of music to support the flourishing of young people in social and educational settings, including during the pandemic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://conversations.qmul.ac.uk/conversations-week/healthy-conversations/ |
| Description | Our World Heritage conference - Culture, Heritage, and Resilience: Local Creative Responses to Natural Disasters and Climate Change |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Prof. Paul Heritage (Co-I) and Ms. Mariana Steffen (research coordinator) made a presentation on the projects Far Apart UK and Latin America, exploring young people's relation with the arts during the pandemic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.ourworldheritage.org/dp_s9/ |
| Description | Presentation of preliminary findings from the project Far Apart Latin America |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Sharing of preliminary findings from the survey conducted within the project Far Apart but Close at Heart Latin America. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://peoplespalaceprojects.org.uk/en/projects/far-apart-but-close-at-heart-latin-america/ |