The Restorative and Transformative Power of the Arts in Conflict Resolution

Abstract

The discipline of the arts has much to contribute to the field of conflict resolution. This article broadly investigates how artistic engagement facilitates transformative learning and the development of skills and capacities for more constructive engagement with conflict. Many scholar practitioners have acknowledged the widespread use of arts-based approaches to peacebuilding and conflict resolution. While it is important to know what forms of arts-based approaches are utilized today, more empirical work is needed to explain and evaluate how engagement with the arts could foster cooperative relationships and more constructive engagement with conflict even in contexts of intractable conflict. An initial review of the literature, alongside examples of practice and personal reflections, highlights the restorative and transformative power of the arts to foster new perspectives, enhanced capacities for more constructive engagement with conflict, and ultimately, cooperative relationships.

Keywords

arts-based approaches transformative learning conflict resolution

As an amateur dancer, former member of music ensembles, and an actively supportive daughter of a musician, choral conductor, and educator who performs and teaches internationally, the arts have been an integral part of my life. From childhood to adult life, I have had several opportunities to encounter the arts as a restorative and transformative force, including in situations of conflict. From watching ballets and observing conductors to learning a new genre of dance and singing in choirs as someone who works in a different professional context that frequently comprises cross-cultural conflict, I have found that training in and exposure to the arts can facilitate transformative learning and the development of skills and capacities for constructive conflict engagement across cultures and contexts.

The field of adult education carries a long history of arts-based approaches to learning, including those that involve conflict resolution. Viola Spolin developed theater games in the late 1930s under the influence of her mentor Neva Boyd who helped Spolin see how play “builds skills in cooperation and teaches people to truly listen to each other and imagine themselves in each other’s circumstances” (Sweet, 2010, para 8). Augusto Boal founded the Theater of the Oppressed, which has been used for more than 40 years as a community-building and community-organizing tool (Picher, 2007). In October 2014, I attended the 11th International Transformative Learning Conference, which took place at Teachers College. At the conference, I attended several workshops and was excited to discover experientially how various art forms, such as drama, fluid sculpture, mosaic art, and musical productions, were used to facilitate transformative learning in professional contexts of adult education and leadership development. I found my experiences in the conference workshops to be transformative. In addition, I believe that they helped me discover additional insights and perspectives to navigate through complex situations of conflict more effectively and to teach others to do so as well. One workshop, in particular, allowed me to directly explore a personal circumstance of conflict and resolution. Titled “Musicals as Problem Solving Tools in Transformative Learning,” the workshop allowed participants to experientially learn how musical theater can be used as a medium for conflict resolution and better understand the dynamics at play in a conflict by collaboratively engaging in an exercise of writing and performing a 10-min musical that depicts a difficult real-life problem (conflict) to be resolved (Marcic, 2014, p. 1010). According to Dorothy Marcic, who facilitated the workshop, conflict and resolution are the essence of a musical as a standard musical usually contains “two competing groups, such as the Sharks and the Jets, or the Farmers and the Cowboys” and explores the conflict between these groups along with its resolution (Marcic, 2014, p. 1010). By participating in the workshop, I formed positive relationships with faculty and peers from different institutions and countries who joined me in the creative process of cowriting and costarring in our very own musical. I also gained a new perspective on the personal challenge that involved intergenerational and cross-cultural conflict.

LeBaron (2014) asserts that the field of conflict resolution must draw from various arts and science disciplines to progress in cultural fluency. Cultural fluency refers to “familiarity and facility with cultural dynamics as they shape ways of seeing and behaving” and is central to “effectiveness in all aspects of theorizing, practice, and pedagogy in conflict resolution” (LeBaron, 2014, p. 582). In this light, LeBaron also states that the “most promising” way to instill cultural fluency in the work of conflict resolution is to treat, and draw from, art and science “as equal progenitors of effective practices and pedagogies that are respectful and relevant across difference” (p. 583). Arts-based approaches in this respect comprise:

a whole constellation of enacted, somatic [whole body] tools that foster creative expression, from visual and theater arts to music, dance, poetry, from the humanities, fine and performing arts to expressive arts, providing fruitful vehicles for imagination and intuition in the midst of conflict. (2014, p. 596)

I share the belief that the discipline of the arts has much to offer in the field of conflict resolution and would like to draw from theories and practices in adult learning and education—particularly in transformative learning—to develop an arts-based theory of change. In this article, I focus on the contribution of the arts to conflict resolution. I use the terms arts-based approaches, artistic activity, artistic engagement, aesthetic engagement, and aesthetic experience interchangeably. In the remaining sections of this article, I explore, through a review of literature and examples of arts-based practices, how engagement with the arts might foster transformative learning and capacities for more constructive engagement with conflict, including in contexts of intractable conflict.

Toward an Arts-Based Theory of Change

Transformative learning, according to Mezirow (2012), can be understood as a process where people:

transform [their] taken-for-granted frames of reference (meaning perspectives, habits of mind, mind-sets) to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, emotionally capable of change, and reflective so that they may generate beliefs and opinions that will prove more true or justified to guide action. (p. 76)

Cranton (2006) stated that transformative learning happens when “people critically examine their habitual expectations, revise them, and act on the revised point of view” (p. 19). Both explanations emphasize critical reflection and analysis and present a cognitive approach to transformative learning. From this foundational basis, imaginative approaches or imaginal methods have been proposed that take into account and engage emotion and affect in the process of transformative learning (Dirkx, 2006, p. 24). Moreover, transformative learning theory has evolved to encompass a variety of perspectives and approaches that parallel developments in adult learning theory and provides a more holistic perspective that includes arts-based learning, emotions, embodied learning, spirituality, storytelling, and relational learning (Cranton, 2006; Cranton & Taylor, 2012). In addressing an arts-based theory of change for practice, especially as it relates to conflict resolution, I draw primarily from the aesthetic and extrarational perspectives on adult education and transformative learning (Brookfield, 2005; Brookfield & Holst, 2011; Dirkx, 2001a, 2001b, 2006, 2012; Greene, 1995, 2001; Lawrence, 2005, 2008; Yorks & Kasl, 2002, 2006) and integrate these with perspectives in the field of conflict resolution, starting with theories of cooperative relationships and behavior (Deutsch, 2014).

“To the extent that musical group behavior is a microcosm of human social interaction, this ancient form of communication may provide a portal for exploring the roots of human prosociality” (Keller & Hove, 2014, p. 9). To examine how music, along with other art forms, could foster cooperative conditions and relationships, I start with Morton Deutsch’s Crude Law of Social Relations: “The characteristic processes and effects elicited by a given type of social relationship also tend to elicit that type of social relationship, and a typical effect tends to induce the other typical effects of that relationship” (Deutsch, 2014, p. 12). In other words, cooperative relationships tend to generate cooperative relationships, while competitive relationships tend to generate competitive relationships. Attitudes, perceptions, level of openness in communication, and orientation toward shared or individual advancement that are characteristic of one type of relationship will tend to “induce that relationship” and other characteristic effects of that relationship (Deutsch, 2014, p. 13). Applying this principle to behavior in musical groups such as a choir, band, or orchestra, cooperation is both a process that leads members of the group to the final stage of a performance and to an outcome that members of the group experience during the performance and thereafter if relationships and interactions or performances continue after the given engagement. Cooperation in this scenario begets cooperation and the cooperative relationships formed during the process of music making could elicit ongoing and future cooperative relationships. Figure 1 provides a visual explanation of this process and theory of change.

Figure 1.

Concept map for an arts-based theory of change.

Whether or not people entering into the artistic activity are already intrinsically motivated to cooperate, they are nevertheless learning how to cooperate, or improving their capacity to do so through the endeavor. In addition to the learning or honing of skills for cooperation, the artistic experience itself engages the mind, body, and spirit in ways that could bring transformation (Hoggan, Simpson, & Stuckey, 2009, p. 19). From this angle, the artistic engagement constitutes a whole body or somatic (integrated mind, body, and spirit) experience that could foster transformation, or at the least an enhanced capacity, for more constructive engagement with conflict and cooperative relationships even in contexts outside of the artistic activity itself. This is perhaps the unique way in which the arts, as distinguished from other cooperative group activities such as sports or team projects, could contribute to cooperative relationships. As mentioned earlier and just above, music has been noted as one aesthetic medium to foster the cooperative conditions necessary for constructive conflict resolution. Given my personal history with music and examples mentioned earlier, I begin with an exploration of the art form of music, which will be followed by discussions of other artistic disciplines, including theater, poetry, visual art, and dance, in later sections of this article.

Schütz (1951) considers all forms of social interaction associated with the musical process with the expectation that “a study of social relationships connected with the musical process may lead to some insights valid” for several other forms of social interaction (p. 76). More recent studies have been conducted on the effects of music education on social climate (Spychiger, Patry, Lauper, Zimmermann, & Weber, 1993) and on the impact of multicultural music education among groups perceived to be in conflict (Skyllstad, 1997, 2000). These studies found that music education reduces competitive dynamics in classrooms and improves social climates (Spychiger et al., 1993), while multicultural music education reduces harassment and ethnic tension among groups and improves interethnic relations along with self-esteem among immigrant children (Skyllstad, 1997, 2000). Barrett (1998) examines creativity and improvisation in jazz and the implications for organizational learning and interactions among organizational members. According to the author, “Appreciating the interactive complexity involved in jazz improvisation suggests that we pay attention to intuitive and emotional connections between organizational members, the experience of passionate connection that inspire deeper levels of involvement and committed participation” (p. 615). Keller and Hove (2014) also studied the effects of music on social dynamics. From the perspective of neurochemistry, the authors found that oxytocin, a hormone that could facilitate social bonding and affiliation, increased after musical engagements (p. 8).

Koelsch (2013) found that music making in a group can lead to increased social cohesion as “individuals have contact with other individuals, engage in social cognition, participate in co-pathy (the social function of empathy), communicate, coordinate their actions, and cooperate with each other” (p. 204). In his discussion of how music fosters cooperation, he cited an earlier study by van Veelen, García, Rand, and Nowak (2012) who found that “cooperation between individuals increases interindividual trust and increases the likelihood of future cooperation between these individuals” (cited in Koelsch, 2013, p. 207). This could also illustrate Deutsch’s Crude Law of Social Relations mentioned earlier where “the typical effects of a given relationship tend to induce that relationship” (Deutsch, 2014, p. 13). Koelsch (2013) acknowledged that music could be used as a tool of manipulation and promote nonsocial behavior but also asserted that, used in the right way, music carries a powerful positive potential as it engages the various social functions of contact, social cognition, copathy, communication, coordination, cooperation, and social cohesion simultaneously (p. 207). Music helps foster cultural change, community, and collective experiences that usher in social change (Wiessner, 2009). It can facilitate transformative learning by stimulating the creative insight required for “new thinking and acting, new knowledge construction and social action” (Wiessner, 2009, p. 107). Transformation in mind-sets is, in many situations, necessary in order to change behavior—how people engage with conflict and ultimately with each other. By allowing people to transcend their situation—to be “part of something that is bigger than one’s self” (Wiessner, 2009, p. 121)—music can help people see and connect with each other in new ways.

According to Deutsch’s Crude Law of Social Relations, the nature of relationships can steer conflict in constructive or destructive ways, so it may be worthwhile to further examine what factors can induce cooperation within and across groups. One of the primary factors I examine is resonance. Coleman et al. (2014) have defined resonance as “a dynamic of shared energy, connection and purpose within and between people and groups in a particular time and space” (p. 6). It is “a form of heightened energy that induces increased coherence which provides a sense of shared direction and meaning in a social system” (p. 6). As such, it can influence the dynamics of a system either in competitive directions, if the resonance is fostered positively within groups and negatively with outside groups, or cooperative directions, if resonance is fostered both within and across groups (Coleman et al., 2014). In the next sections, I focus on two contributing and related factors to the cooperative outcomes of resonance that can be cultivated through engagement with the arts and used to improve intergroup relations. These two factors are empathy and synchronous activity. These discussions are followed by a deeper exploration of how aesthetic engagement could foster transformative learning for more constructive engagement with conflict, particularly as it relates to the presence of tension and the development of capacities to work with tension to reach a desired outcome of change.

Empathy

Before exploring how engagement with the arts cultivates empathy, it may be worthwhile to examine whether and how empathy improves intergroup relations. According to Fisher (2014), “Conflict between groups often engages perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral mechanisms at both the individual and group levels, which exacerbate the initial incompatibilities” (p. 214). As such, people are not sufficiently versed to address significant differences between themselves and others and frequently act in socially destructive ways unless mechanisms and resources are available to help them engage with their incompatibilities constructively (Fisher, 2014, p. 231). Empathy has been both widely studied and widely used to mitigate intergroup conflict.

Various studies have explored the roles and effects of empathy on intergroup relations and have found positive results. Batson and Ahmad (2009) reviewed research and theory concerning relational and empathic processes deemed to strengthen intergroup relations and used their exploration to analyze eight programs that employ empathy to enhance intergroup attitudes and relationships. They identified four distinct psychological states of empathy that had the potential to improve intergroup relations. These include two “cognitive/perceptual” states that concern forms of perspective taking—“imagining how one would think and feel in an out-group member’s situation [imagine-self perspective]; imagining how an out-group member thinks and feels [imagine-other perspective]”—and two “affective/emotional” states that concern emotional responses—“feeling as an out-group member feels [emotion matching]; feeling for an out-group member [empathetic concern]” (pp. 143–144). Acknowledging the limitations of each state of empathy in improving intergroup relations, the authors nevertheless confirmed that these states improve intergroup attitudes and relations in various ways. They also acknowledged and discussed the contribution of the arts in improving intergroup relations through the stimulation of empathy (p. 172). According to Yorks and Kasl (2006), “Not only must feelings be dealt with when they arise, but feelings must be intentionally evoked and engaged when the educational purpose is to foster transformative learning” (p. 46). In this respect, the authors mention that artistic engagement can help people “more readily access the experiential knowing of other learners, facilitating the field of empathic connection that could strengthen their capacity to engage each other’s beliefs and values at significant levels of mutual respect, trust, and genuine understanding” (p. 61). The empathic field facilitates transformative learning by enabling a supportive environment within which challenging issues can be explored and addressed without damaging relationships (Yorks & Kasl, 2006, p. 52). This is further discussed in subsequent sections of this article.

Pettigrew and Tropp (2008) conducted a meta-analysis of 515 intergroup contact studies to examine how contact diminishes prejudice related to the three most commonly tested mediators—namely, improving knowledge about the outgroup, reducing anxiety around intergroup contact, and fostering empathy and perspective taking. The authors confirmed mediational effects for all three mediators and found that affective factors, including empathy and anxiety reduction, are more significant as mediators in comparison to knowledge, the more cognitively oriented mediator. These results were consistent with the expanding research on the central role of affect in intergroup processes and intergroup contact.

With some understanding of the positive effects of empathy on intergroup relations, it may be worthwhile to now examine how empathy is fostered through the arts. Art carries “the potential for making conflict rooted in diversity more constructive for learning” as well as “the power to make psychological and societal boundaries more porous” (Hayes & Yorks, 2007, p. 92). In the context of adult education, aesthetic activities can facilitate transformative learning in diverse settings, where conflict could easily emerge from different group identities and affiliations, by not only providing a space for perspective taking and collaboration but also by drawing out emotions that are a key component of adult education and transformative learning. Emotions are central to adult education as they could hinder or motivate learning (Dirkx, 2001a, p. 63). Dirkx (2006) mentions the ways in which the expression and experience of emotion are deeply a part of the transformative learning process and the journey of individuation to develop more authentic relationships with oneself and with others. Brookfield and Holst (2011) extract from Herbert Marcuse’s The Aesthetic Dimension (1978) to discuss the political significance of art and the aesthetic aspects of learning that challenge conventional ways of meaning making and opens people up to the nonrational, spontaneous, and emotional aspects of who they are.

According to Lawrence (2005), “Art engages all of our senses, awakening our imaginative and intellectual capabilities” (p. 8), while arts-based approaches expand our cultural perspectives by honoring different ways of knowing and learning. This allows individuals to engage with the world more holistically and thereby deepening an understanding of self, others, and the world (Lawrence, 2005, p. 1). In this light, aesthetic engagement can foster transformative learning by engaging people’s spirituality, imagination, and somatics and allowing them to reconstruct their beliefs and discover new meaning accordingly (Hoggan et al., 2009, p. 19). Brookfield and Holst (2011) mention that art both provides an opportunity for us to break away from the familiar and induces within us an awareness of alternative ways of interacting with the world (p. 146). Drawing from John Dewey’s work in Art as Experience (1934), Greene (1995) also suggests that “it may well be the ‘imaginative capacity’ that allows us also to experience empathy with different points of view, even with interests apparently at odds with ours” (p. 31). Creative expression, then:

is a powerful tool to access knowledge that resides deep within us and allows our conscious thinking to interact with our subconscious knowledge, thus yielding a more holistic understanding of ourselves, our experiences, and the world in which we live. (Hoggan et al., 2009, p. 16)

It could also constitute the “soul work” that Dirkx (2001b, 2012) describes as the development of a conscious dialogue between the conscious and unconscious through which one may foster wholeness of the self. Transformative learning in this regard is “deeply social and engages the learner in collaborative relationships with others” (Dirkx, 2006, p. 19). The ways in which aesthetic experiences engage our emotions, imagination, spirituality, inner worlds, and ability to relate to and collaborate with others carry important implications for conflict resolution and the fostering of empathy within and across groups.

With the understanding that empathy is essential for trust, solidarity, and security in relationships, Yorks and Kasl (2002) focused their study on empathy and illustrated through theory and examples how artistic practices help create the empathic field that allows for learning to take place within and across groups. Primarily drawing from John Heron’s theory and work on modes of psyche and ways of knowing, the authors summarized the core distinctions between a pragmatic and a phenomenological understanding of experience, studied the appropriateness of these distinctions to develop theory on the role of affect in learning, and used the concept of “learning-within-relationship” to link the significance of theorizing to practice, particularly in contexts of racial diversity. They discussed how presentational knowing (“expressive ways of knowing” or learning through the arts) could aid in developing an empathic field and empathic knowing while fostering learning-within-relationship in the midst of racial differences (Yorks & Kasl, 2002).

In a later study, Yorks and Kasl (2006) conducted an empirical analysis of case studies and interviews with adult educators to provide a conceptual map of the ways, in which different artistic processes (expressive ways of knowing) foster transformative change and whole-person learning in the face of racial and cultural diversity. They gathered educators’ perceptions of their intentions for using expressive ways of knowing as well as their observations on its impact on learners to develop a “taxonomy” around two general categories—creating the learning environment for expressive ways of knowing and fostering the learning through expressive ways of knowing. In this respect, Yorks and Kasl found that expressive ways of knowing allow individuals to more readily access the experiential knowing of other learners, facilitating the field of empathic connection that could strengthen their capacity to engage each other’s beliefs and values at significant levels of mutual respect, trust, and genuine understanding (2006, p. 61). A specific experience of learning across racial differences through an expressive activity was shared in the study to illustrate the authors’ findings from expert interviews and analysis of cases. In both studies, the engagements of emotions and imagination were emphasized as stimulants for empathy (Yorks & Kasl, 2002, 2006).

Synchronous Activity

Artistic activities evoke empathy not only through engagement of emotions and imagination (Hawes, 2007a, 2007b) but also through the way in which some artistic processes take form. Synchronized activity is one major way through which art is created and expressed. Synchronized behaviors, according to Hove and Risen (2009), are “those that are matched in time” through coordinated movements or identical actions (p. 950). Coleman et al. (2014) identified synchronized activity as another contributing factor to resonance. In their exploration of literature, they found that synchronous activity carries the potential to establish social bonds that foster cooperation (2014, p. 9). In this light, synchronous activity is not distinct from empathy but rather another way to foster empathy. Several studies have explored this potential. Wiltermuth and Health (2009) conducted three experiments to test whether synchrony can strengthen cooperation in groups, especially when such cooperation could entail personal sacrifice. The authors found that synchronous activity can increase cooperation by improving social bonding among members of a group. Participants in the synchronous conditions established by the study felt more connected with their counterparts and cooperated more, even at the expense of personal interest, for the interest of the collective group (Wiltermuth & Health, 2009).

Keller and Hove (2014) reviewed the psychological processes and brain mechanisms that allowed for rhythmic interpersonal coordination—“behavior between individuals engaged in joint activity, for example, playing a musical duet or dancing with a partner” (p. 1). Their investigation included an exploration of the effects of coordination on interpersonal trust, affiliation, and prosocial behavior. Based on their review of existing research, they found that interpersonal coordination or synchrony resulted in increased social cohesion and affiliation, positive social outcomes including trust and cooperation, and improved empathy and prosocial behavior in children (2014, p. 8). They also found positive effects on neural alignment, which could strengthen communication, joint action, neural efficiency and social attachment (2014, p. 8). Miles, Lumsden, Richardson, and Macrae (2011) explored the effects of arbitrary group members on the fostering of interpersonal coordination and found that the most stable coordination was “most pronounced,” when individuals interacted with a member of a different social group. As such, Miles et al. concluded that “in the absence of any disincentive to affiliate with dissimilar others, interpersonal coordination may act as a medium to support the reduction in intergroup differences and lessen social distance” (2011, p. 501). Their findings support the notion that synchrony could serve to mend the divide between different groups (Miles, Lumsden, Richardson, & Macrae, 2011).

The fostering of synchronicity and cooperative conditions through the arts can also be explored in the realm of dance (Beausoleil & LeBaron, 2013; LeBaron, MacLeod, & Acland, 2013). Dance engages the body, and movement carries the potential to “reveal surprising resonances and connections, build capacities for meaningful relationships with others, and establish the necessary ground for constructive resolution or transformation” (Beausoleil & LeBaron, 2013, p. 146). In addition, “shared embodied experiences … generate resonance and synchrony and thus foster kinesthetic empathy” (Beausoleil & LeBaron, 2013, p. 145). Dance is a shared embodied experience that can be used or taught to stimulate empathy. The experience of learning a dance, for example, not only generates neurological connections among dancers but also influences the way people make meaning and relate to one another (Beausoleil & LeBaron, 2013). In this regard, “as people learn dance movements together, they are also learning a different way of relating—and in the process, developing the shared frameworks of meaning and communicative tools important to intersubjective understanding, resonance, and empathy” (Beausoleil & LeBaron, 2013, p. 145). In addition, these bonds can form relatively quickly. From a neuroscience perspective, people are “neurologically wired for mutual understanding and feeling” (Beausoleil & LeBaron, 2013, p. 144). As such, “when people watch each other move or move together, their brains are essentially sharing embodied neural information and practicing ways of relating to one another … [and] this human capacity to imitate, learn, and connect with others arises from and through the body” (Beausoleil & LeBaron, 2013, p. 144). Even in situations of intractable conflict, research has been conducted to reveal that generating collective experiences through creative movement enables people to identify and establish bonds that facilitate openness, empathetic communication, and mutual ownership of a conflict (Beausoleil & LeBaron, 2013, p. 146). Dance and other forms of creative movement are collaborative endeavors that constitute somatic or whole body experiences that could foster transformation in perspectives and relationships. Other forms of artistic collaboration could generate new perspectives on conflict as well. Yorks and Kasl (2006) define transformative learning as “a wholistic change in how a person both affectively experiences and conceptually frames his or her experience of the world when pursuing learning that is personally developmental, socially controversial, or requires personal or social healing” (p. 46). Conflict may require engagement in all these forms. As such, creative expression provides opportunities for people to comprehend an opinion, idea, or situation from a new perspective, which could facilitate transformative learning (Hoggan et al., 2009, p. 7). This could also help people engage with conflict more constructively and thereby build or strengthen cooperative relationships.

Conflict Reframing Through Artistic Collaboration

Participating in the arts is frequently a collaborative process that can help people reframe conflict in a way that fosters cooperation. This can inform the “novel perspective” on conflict, which reframes conflict as “a mutual problem that the conflicting parties can work on together, cooperatively, in an attempt to discover mutually satisfactory solutions” (Coleman & Deutsch, 2014, p. 479). Such reframing is essential to creative resolution and can allow opposing parties to view themselves as being collaborative rather than competitive in resolving their conflict (Coleman & Deutsch, 2014, p. 479). This process seems to foster cooperation and cooperative relationships. It could spur creativity and expand the repertoire of responses and interventions in conflict resolution. New ideas could be generated in such social conditions as:

the opportunity to communicate with and be exposed to other people who may have relevant and unfamiliar ideas, a social atmosphere that values innovation and originality and encourages exchanging ideas, and a social tradition that fosters the optimistic view that, with effort and time, constructive solutions to problems that initially seem intractable can be discovered or invented. (Coleman & Deutsch, 2014, p. 480)

According to Fisher (2014), “When differences are handled constructively, such conflict can be a source of learning, creativity, and social change toward a more pluralistic, harmonious, and equitable world” (p. 231). In this respect, Jo Tyler’s use of mosaic art as part of an innovative strategic planning process with My Brother’s Keeper of Baltimore, an inner-city nonprofit service agency in the neighborhood of Irvington, is notable.¹ As an artist with years of experience in mosaic art and organizational development consulting, Tyler (2014, 2015) found conventional, document-driven, practices of strategic planning to be problematic, especially among certain nonprofit organizations. These organizations viewed a strategic plan as a mere “form to be filled out” without any engagement with the process of strategic planning (2014, p. 421) or the process of strategic planning as a document generating exercise (2015, p. 328). In response, Tyler called for “a more organic, holistic, participatory, and creative approach to the facilitation of strategic planning” and developed the practice of “strategic assemblage,” which entails the integration of images and ideas about a vision or future state through storytelling, drawing, and the joining of broken pieces of tile to form a whole image (2015, p. 328, pp. 332–334). Such an approach assumes that “the assembling of people, their voices and perspectives, which are expressed and ‘fit together’ in new ways on the basis of the process” and integrates storytelling and drawing in the creation of mosaic art (2015, p. 328). For her work with My Brother’s Keeper of Baltimore in 2011, a considerably diverse group of people including the staff of My Brother’s Keeper, members of the board, volunteers, suppliers (e.g., a food bank), adjacent agencies (e.g., the local hospital and churches), and residents of the community were brought together to develop and implement a strategic plan through the use and creation of a mosaic (Tyler, 2014, p. 421). The diversity of participants with respect to “life experience, social/economic/political perspectives, and their orientation and connection to the agency” was evident in their stories and respective pieces or images in the mosaic (Tyler, 2015, p. 338). The task of drawing and collectively creating a work of art in this context, according to the author, “seemed to level the power dynamics driven by organizational roles and socioeconomic positionality” (p. 335). Tyler’s work with My Brother’s Keeper of Baltimore has transformed the organization from operating as a “Spoke” to a “Hub” or “Anchor” in the community, fostering “community conversation and action” (2014, p. 424) along with creativity, collaboration, and even newfound confidence among a diverse group of people who cared for their community. In addition to the process, the tangible outcome of the actual mosaic has served as both a reminder of and an inspiration for progress and social change in their community. Conflict that could have resulted from the diversity of perspectives, ideas, and aspirations brought into a strategic planning process was reframed as an opportunity to explore, celebrate, and leverage differences through a creatively integrative and artistically collaborative exercise. This allowed participants to discover new connections among the various images presented in the mosaic, thereby generating more, rather than fewer, possibilities for the future of the organization.

According to Cohen (2006), “Engaging with the arts can generate, for both individuals and collectivities, for creators and spectators, special qualities of attention and response—such as disinterestedness, committed participation, metacognitive alertness, receptivity, and blissful serenity,” which “afford unique opportunities for learning, empathy, reflexivity, creativity, innovation, and experimentation” (p. 71). With respect to contexts of intractable conflict, Cohen explained the importance of the arts and cultural work in promoting coexistence and reconciliation following violent conflict. With this understanding, the author provided theoretical models for reconciliation and artistic engagement after violent conflict as well as examples of arts and cultural work that have been used to facilitate various educational tasks necessary for reconciliation, including helping former adversaries to “appreciate each other’s humanity, to empathize with each other’s suffering, to address injustice, and to imagine a new future” (2006, p. 70). Such frameworks and examples of aesthetic engagement may help inform training and practice in contexts of intractable conflict.

Implications for Training and Practice in Contexts of Intractable Conflict

In the conclusion of their study, Coleman and Lowe (2007) provided implications for intervention in situations of protracted conflict. In addition to the importance of “early, positive intergroup contact,” which include occasions that are “genuine and serendipitous,” the authors encouraged “experiences that foster increased complexity, tolerance for uncertainty, motivation to seek contradictory information, and emotional coping strategies of a constructive nature” (p. 408). Such experiences were also encouraged in subsequent studies on intractable conflict (Coleman, 2011a, 2014; Coleman & Deutsch, 2014). Here is another area to which the arts can contribute and theater/drama is another medium in which complexity could be explored and perhaps fostered as a capacity for constructive conflict engagement.

Playback theater (PT) is an improvisational form of performance, where a trained team of actors and musicians welcomes members of an audience to share a narrative, emotion, or hope, which is then spontaneously acted out, enabling those who shared to “feel heard and respected as the essence of their stories is performed for the audience” (Cohen, 2006, p. 79). In addition to facilitating an atmosphere that encourages active listening and new interpretation, PT can construct processes “that facilitate people’s ability to experience the same narrative from a variety of perspectives and to become metacognitively aware of the interpretive process” (Cohen, 2006, p. 83). At the 11th International Transformative Learning Conference, experiential workshops involving PT enabled participants to share a transformative learning experience from their personal life in a narrative short story, from which the strongest emotions were drawn and acted out (portrayed) as a “dramatic fluid sculpture playback” for participants to observe and engage in a process of “critical reflection on the fluid sculpture sharing various meaning perspectives to foster the reframing of assumptions” (Nicolaides & Holt, 2014, p. 32). Such an activity allowed participants to deconstruct emotional meanings from the playback scene and “re-examine their emotional orientation, while critically reflecting on their assumptions related to the narrative and fluid sculpture” (Goodman, Ellinger, & Mount, 2014, p. 659). From the ensuing discourse and shared experience among those who tell their stories and those who listen and observe the fluid sculptures, the authors and facilitators of the workshop asserted that PT may “promote transformative learning through a process of assimilative learning” (2014, p. 659). The changes in perspectives as well as awareness of other perspectives from this learning experience could foster the “increased complexity … motivation to seek contradictory information, and emotional coping strategies of a constructive nature” mentioned earlier by Coleman and Lowe (2007, p. 408).

Poetry and other uses of metaphors engage the imagination and may also serve as useful tools for constructive conflict engagement in complex situations. Coleman and Deutsch (2014) explored the use of metaphors and engagement with imagination of a “desirable future,” where parties are assisted in imagining desirable future relations and thinking about how to reach that end from their current situation (p. 487). Poetry may aid in this effort with its impact through metaphors to “enliven and restore the capacity to imagine” (Cohen, 2006, p. 96). This and other forms of aesthetic engagement allow communities to “engage the complexities of a painful past in order to shape and affirm the more nuanced moral sensibilities they need to construct their future” (Cohen, 2006, p. 97). LeBaron (2014) also mentioned poetry and metaphors, among other forms of expression, as useful tools in nurturing cultural fluency, where “windows into cultural influences on the conscious and unconscious motivations and actions of individuals and groups have shaped and thus reflect ingrained and emerging behavioral patterns and collective identities across generations” (p. 591). In this respect, an awareness of cultural influences could help groups identify those aspects of their culture that impede progress for constructive conflict resolution and work to address them.

“Humor, play, and a sense of fun can all contribute to releasing tension and opening up one’s view of things, ultimately leading to development of a novel point of view” (Coleman & Deutsch, 2014, p. 484). Here is another way in which music could contribute. Koelsch (2013) found that music making evokes activity of neural reward pathways, which is “subjectively experienced as fun” as well as “attachment-related emotions … such as love, joy, and happiness,” which in turn “bears the potential for therapeutic applications with regard to disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, Parkinson disease, and schizophrenia” (p. 207). As such, the evocation of neural reward pathways through music may have the potential to foster conditions—“the serious but playful problem-solving atmosphere” that Coleman and Deutsch (2014) described—where conflict could be creatively and constructively explored and addressed. The emotional effects of music and their potential for therapeutic applications may help reengineer latent attractor landscapes in contexts of intractable conflict. According to Coleman (2011a), “The main task involved in creating or enhancing latent positive attractors in the 5 percent is to help develop, foster, and trigger positive feelings between the parties” (p. 149). As such, music making, in certain contexts, may be able to contribute to this effort. The positive emotional effects of music making, including the healing of emotional wounds, which if left untreated could strengthen negative attractors in ongoing or future conflict, could potentially alter these negative emotions to positive ones—thereby contributing to the “reservoir of positivity” (positive attractors) for cooperative relations and peace. In other words, the use of music could strengthen positive attractors (e.g., by fostering empathy, compassion, love, and trust), weaken negative attractors (e.g., by reducing fear, resentment, rage, and mistrust), and ultimately help “tip the state of the system from the attractor of destructive conflict to the attractor of peace” (Coleman, 2011a, p. 175).

Media and the arts can help improve intergroup relations by fostering empathy as “groups that have little or no contact in actual life can enter the subjective experience of the other through television, film, and music” (Batson & Ahmad, 2009, p. 172). Batson and Ahmad (2009) found that exposure to media that include the arts can thus

set the stage in a low-threat context for increased openness, understanding, and feeling for out-group members prior to direct contact” and allow perspective taking and empathic emotion to be primed for face-to-face contact that could channel “empathy-induced attitude change into concrete action. (p. 171)

The “low-threat context” that artistic media provide might also serve as what Coleman (2011a) has referred to as a way to “circumvent the conflict” by employing an “unconflict resolution strategy” that may “help address some of the negativity and misery associated with conflicts, without becoming incorporated (attracted) into the polarized ‘good versus evil’ narrative of the conflict” (p. 150).

Constructive engagement with conflict requires a certain degree of comfort with tension as well as the ability to use it to foster transformation both internally in an individual and collectively within and across groups. Artists are able to:

work with the tension of innovation and tradition—as well as other tensions, such as randomness and rigidity, and the impulses of the individual and the imperatives of collectives—to construct forms that enliven but do not overwhelm the perceptual capacities of their audiences. (Cohen, 2006, p. 72).

Barrett (1998) discusses this in the context of jazz music—“an activity marked by paradox: musicians must balance structure and freedom, autonomy and interdependence, surrender and control” (p. 619). As aesthetic processes recognize and mediate certain tensions (Cohen, 2006, p. 72), artistic experiences and the skills developed through them could also be useful in conflict situations with respect to perceiving and fostering “optimal tension,” which is:

a state in which there is not too little tension regarding the problem being faced in a conflict (where the disputants are not sufficiently motivated to deal with the issues and conflict remains unresolved) or too much tension (which can lead to conflict avoidance because it is so threatening or conflict escalation as the tension limits one to an oversimplified black-and-white perception of the issues). (Coleman & Deutsch, 2014, p. 485)

A parallel concept is used in the framework of adaptive leadership (Heifetz, 1994; Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). Coined by Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky (2009) as the “productive zone of disequilibrium,” it refers to “the optimal range of distress within which the urgency in the system motivates people to engage in adaptive work” (p. 306) or a level of stress that is sufficiently high to mobilize people to focus on and deal with the problem they may try to avoid (p. 30). Leadership then involves “the strategic task” of sustaining such an optimal or productive degree of tension that engages and moves people to action (Heifetz, 1994, p. 106). Even in conflict resolution, it has become increasingly important for practitioners to develop skills to more effectively assess levels of stress in a conflict system, identify an optimal level of tension for the system, and discover ways to achieve and manage it (Coleman & Deutsch, 2014, p. 485). Tension can lead to conflict, which can further generate more tension. The ability to engage with, rather than avoid or suppress, both conflict and tension is essential for leadership and conflict resolution. Barrett (1998) mentions the cultivation of “provocative competence”—“a leadership skill that involves challenging habits and conventional practices, challenging members to experiment in the margins and to stretch in new directions” (p. 618). Such skills could be developed through artistic activities, which involve cultivating awareness of, and the abilities to utilize, tension. This may be useful in contexts of intractable conflict as well as other contexts in which new perspectives, mind-sets, and behavior are needed for change to occur.

Conclusions and Next Steps

According to Greene (2001), aesthetic education is “integral to the development of persons—to their cognitive, perceptual, emotional, and imaginative development” (p. 7). Based on an initial review of literature and practices, I have found that arts-based approaches can facilitate transformative learning and thereby help people develop or enhance their capacities for more constructive engagement with conflict and build more cooperative relationships. I have also observed that while many scholar practitioners have acknowledged the widespread use of arts-based work in peacebuilding and conflict resolution and have recently begun to explore the importance of these approaches, most studies provide descriptive examples of arts-based practices. While it is important to know what forms of arts-based approaches are utilized today, more empirical work is needed alongside more explanations of how artistic engagement could foster cooperative relationships and more constructive engagement with conflict even in the most difficult situations. This gap in research in the field of conflict resolution, also acknowledged by Bergh and Sloboda (2010), Hawes (2007a, 2007b), and Zelizer (2003), points to the need to go beyond exploratory case studies to further research and the building of theory. Similar observations have been made in the field of adult education by Hoggan, Simpson, and Stuckey (2009):

It is not surprising that there is little literature about educational creative expression techniques or, for that matter, the relationship between adult education and creativity and the arts. What is unfortunate is that with the number of individual transformations through the arts, as well as the number of grass roots community projects happening across the country, these key learning experiences are going undocumented. (p. 27)

Bergh and Sloboda (2010) found that the use of the arts has expanded among nongovernmental organizations that have become more involved in international and local mediation (p. 5). Nevertheless, the authors also asserted that “unless music practitioners can talk the wider language of conflict-resolution, and show a professional understanding of the larger toolkit, their efforts are likely to remain marginalized and largely ineffective” (2010, p. 7). This marginalization is likely the case for both artist and nonartist practitioners across disciplines who are using particular, or a variety of, art forms in their work, including teaching, consulting, leadership, activism, entrepreneurship, mediation, and therapy. Coleman (2011b) communicated related insights in more general terms of the field of conflict resolution by pointing to the dangerous gap between the research and practice of conflict work and the inadequacy of direct experience alone as a gauge of a particular method’s effectiveness in peacemaking (para 6). To address this challenge in the context of this article, a variety of methods could be used to investigate empirically the effectiveness of these approaches and hopefully build the bridges of understanding that could both explain and inform practice. Such methods could include expert interviews, case studies, and perception surveys alongside further and ongoing reviews of relevant research literature to explore specific examples of arts-based approaches in conflict resolution, the relevant contexts and reasons for using these approaches, the challenges associated with employing these approaches and how these were addressed, the transformational outcomes of these approaches, and the broader systemic impact these approaches may have had.

The findings from my initial and exploratory review of literature are promising and seem to support the idea that artistic engagement could foster cooperative relationships and conditions for more constructive engagement with conflict. Given my personal background and relationships, I acknowledge my assumption that arts-based approaches are effective. Nevertheless, this investigation was prompted in response to seemingly minimal recognition or inclusion of the arts as a valid discipline to draw from in the field of conflict resolution thus far (LeBaron, 2014), along with the desire to better understand and explain why and how arts-based approaches are effective, especially in relation to transformative learning. As stated by Coleman and Deutsch (2014), “The time has come to invest the energy and resources necessary to innovate and create new and livelier means to wage peace” (p. 488). I hope that this article has provided the ideas and inspiration to continue this effort, while spurring further interest, empirical study, validation, and use of arts-based approaches to peacebuilding and conflict resolution alongside the models and practices already used and recognized as effective across fields of study.

Footnotes

Author’s Note

An earlier version of this article was submitted for presentation at the 28th Annual International Association of Conflict Management (IACM) Conference in Clearwater Beach, FL, from June 28 to July 1, 2015.

Acknowledgment

The author is grateful to her two anonymous reviewers and editor Dr. John Dirkx for their helpful suggestions; Dr. Jo Tyler for her insights and comments; and faculty mentors Dr. Patricia Cranton, Dr. Victoria Marsick, Dr. Lyle Yorks, Dr. Carmela Bennett, and Dr. Herman “Dutch” Leonard for their encouraging support at various stages of the process. The author would also like to thank Dr. Peter Coleman for enabling the author to explore this topic through a course assignment and providing helpful feedback on the earliest (foundational) draft of this article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Note

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