Alanus University successfully researches the effectiveness of creative arts therapies

Research Institute RIArT celebrates its fifth anniversary

Artistic and creative activities have been proven to have a positive effect on health: this is the conclusion reached by a report by the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite many positive practical experiences, there was hardly any systematic research on effectiveness until a few years ago. For this reason, the Research Institute for Creative Arts Therapies RIArT (Research Institute for Creative Arts Therapies) was founded at Alanus University in Alfter near Bonn, and it is now celebrating its fifth anniversary.

In recent years, RIArT, which is based in the Department of Creative Arts Therapies and Therapy Sciences, has become well established: the research institute is part of a small but international network: “There are ten international universities and four research institutes worldwide, two in the USA as well as one each in Israel and Australia. We are in close exchange with them,” says Professor Sabine Koch, head of the institute. “Art works through aesthetics and the experience of beauty, but also through the symbolic communication of psychological and sensory experience that can often hardly be communicated verbally.”

Evidence-based research

“We develop, apply for, and support research projects so that creative arts therapies can be scientifically investigated in various fields of application,” says Harald Gruber, dean of the department. “Anyone who wants to succeed in the healthcare system must also meet the criteria of evidence-based research, that is, collect data over a long period in large, preferably randomized and controlled studies,” says the professor of art therapy. Current RIArT projects include art therapy in oncology and palliative medicine (with Bonn University Hospital), digitalization in creative arts therapies (with partners from the research institute at the University of Melbourne), as well as methodological developments in the areas of arts-based research and the recording of aesthetic experience. The institute is centrally involved in international research on mechanisms of action and in publishing the Journal of Arts Therapies.

Harald Gruber pursues clear goals and hopes “that creative arts therapies will be integrated into the healthcare system like other therapeutic methods, so that they can be reimbursed through health insurance funds.”

Further information is available at: www.alanus.edu/riart

The Research Institute for Creative Arts Therapies is funded by the Software AG Foundation, which is also the main sponsor of Alanus University.