| Abstract [eng] |
The topic of the study: Artistic Social Project: a Community Music Therapy Approach Empowering People with Intellectual Disability. People with intellectual disabilities face a range of difficulties, one of which is in communication, which is also one of the needs that people with disabilities have. This difficulty has a significant impact on their social skills and quality of life. Community music therapy is manifested through artistic-social projects that can not only meet the need of people with disabilities to communicate, but also enable them to create and express themselves freely in artistic activities alongside professional artists. The aim of this study is to empower people with intellectual disabilities in an artistic-social project. Objectives: 1) To review the needs and self-expression opportunities of people with intellectual disabilities; 2) To explore the relationship between community music therapy and artistic-social projects, its importance; 3) To design, prepare and organise a small artistic-social project involving professional musicians; 4) To explore the participants' experiences in the music therapy process, their communication possibilities in the context of the artistic-social project. A deductive (theoretical) research strategy is chosen, and generalisations are made on the basis of the data collected. The participants of the study were the clients of the Youth Day Care Centre (three groups) attending music classes and three students of the Panevėžio Vytauto Mikalausko Art Gymnasium who voluntarily chose to participate in the study. The data were analysed in several different ways: evaluation of the 6 selected clients according to the adapted standardised Nordoff-Robbins musical communicability scale, thematic interview analysis and questionnaire survey analysis. The aim is to uncover the experiences of both participants and listeners. The analysis of the literature shows that artistic-social projects (community music therapy) increase social inclusion, change societal attitudes, create equal conditions for participants to use the existing resources, and create a sharing environment. The PREPARE model, developed by music therapists Stiges, Andsell and Aarø, is a seven-qualities model that defines whether an artistic-social project is part of community music therapy. The data showed that the musical abilities and communicative skills of the clients improved during the project process, and they expressed themselves more freely and creatively during the performance than during everyday activities. The openness of the Art Gymnasium students helped them to quickly develop a close and strong bond with the clients, their experiences were vivid, joyful and unique, and the activity became an inspiration for their future plans. The staff and volunteers of the centre who became listeners, highlight the cosy and warm atmosphere during the performance, admire the cooperation of the participants and the opportunities given to them. |
