Care beyond Cancer: The Culture of Creativity

Abstract

The expressive arts can provide cancer survivors with tools to navigate the unknown and to find meaning in their illness. This article examines the key concepts developed by Living Art, a nonprofit organization, in its “Cancer, Courage, and Creativity” ten-week expressive arts therapy groups for cancer survivors. Using art, drama, poetry, movement, ritual, myth, and mask making, Living Art has developed a program of creative action. Cancer can be viewed as a demand for inner personal change. Based on metaphor and symbol, myth and enduring stories widen the field of one's perception. Drawing on the etymology of metaphor, meaning to transfer or cross over, the expressive arts build bridges between past and present, between one's own story and the heroic journey it represents. Thus, the development of a culture of creativity is shared among participants as a way of cultivating an expanded self-identity and moving into a new life beyond cancer.

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