Toward an Integrative Theory for Understanding Art Discourses

This article describes how a fine art teacher, an art therapist, and a social worker analyzed art works created by students taking an art course in a masters-level social work degree program. The premise of this research is that the fine art teacher, the art therapist, and the social worker hold different perspectives about art in general, and including art produced by students in this course. The three different visualizations expressed by our subjects about the art works are then broken down and compared. Our assumption is that we will find different understandings of the art based on understandings about relationships between technique, composition, content, process, and artist intentions. These visualizations intersect and thus help to redefine the role of the art as well as offering important connections between social practice and the arts.