Different types of animators supporting participation with art and nature-based methods
Keywords:
Art and nature based methods, involvement, participation, sociocultural animationAbstract
The aim of this article was to provide insights into art and nature-based methods in supporting participation. We interviewed eleven persons who had implemented art and nature-based methods that they had developed in the co-creation workshops of the Parasta Etelä-Savoon project. The aim was to find out, how the interviewees supported participation and what kind of added value they found in such methods in terms of participation. We were also interested in how the interviewees described their work and the way of working. All the interviewees seemed to have similar orientation for organizing democratic, appreciative, and safe activities. They also had the courage to test new methods. However, in addition to these similarities, we found typical differences in the orientations, too, and categorized the differences into five types of animators that use art and nature-based methods in their work. Through these types, it is possible to develop social, health care and educational work towards sociocultural animation. This article provides one approach to perceiving, how art and nature-based methods can be put into practice in different ways and from different starting points.
