By: Dora N. Watkins

For nearly two years, the University of Illinois School of Social Work’s Community Learning Lab (CLL), led by Katie Shumway, and Krannert Center for the Performing Arts’ Civic Engagement and Social Practice Lab, led by alum Sam Smith, have partnered to bridge the fields of social work, education, and the performing arts. Through a series of pre- and post-performance expressive arts workshops, this initiative has fostered innovative approaches to community engagement, emotional development, and collective healing—a transformative praxis.

Facilitation and Student Leadership

Facilitators and participants have engaged the expressive arts as a tool for emotional exploration, professional development, critical dialogue, and the promotion of self-acceptance and self-care across diverse communities. The workshops exemplify the integration of theory and praxis, using creative modalities to deepen relationality and support well-being.

A core strength of this initiative has been the brilliance and leadership of students engaged in this work. Central to the success of the expressive arts workshops has been the meaningful participation and facilitation by both undergraduate and graduate students, who brought creativity, critical insight, and a deep commitment to community engagement. As a doctoral student during the course of this collaboration, I had the privilege of serving as a primary facilitator and architect of the workshops, bringing an arts-informed, healing-centered approach to the initiative. My work emphasized the importance of relational engagement, cultural humility, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Deepening the impact, undergraduate student Vera Mak played a critical role in facilitating children’s workshops, guiding expressive arts activities that supported emotional literacy, identity development, and self-acceptance among young participants. Together, our work highlights the transformative potential of empowering students as leaders in arts-based social work practice and demonstrates the rich possibilities of interdisciplinary, student-centered engagement.

Key Collaborations

One significant collaboration occurred around the production of Hero, a theatrical portrayal of the life and legacy of Congressman John Lewis. In partnership with the show’s director, Daniel Carlton, an intergenerational post-performance expressive arts workshop was developed to center empathy-building as a key theme. Participants engaged in personal storytelling exercises and group dialogue, guided by theater principles and pedagogy, inviting them to connect their lived experiences to broader movements for civil rights and social justice. The session illuminated how the arts can bridge personal reflection and collective historical memory, offering a powerful model for social work practice grounded in empathy and action—transcending age and other demographic boundaries.

Another highlight involved the production of Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Story. Working alongside director and Theatre Professor Latrelle Bright and the production dramaturg, participants engaged in a pre-show discussion focused on feminist reinterpretations of classical literature and critical narratives. The dialogue explored how traditional stories could be disrupted and reimagined to challenge systems of power and oppression. This conversation underscored the critical role that storytelling and performative arts can play in advancing social justice, cultivating critical consciousness—key competencies within social work education and practice.

Engaging Children and Caregivers

In addition to working with adult and community audiences, the collaboration also focused on engaging children and caregivers through expressive arts. The Stories We Tell: Promoting Self- Acceptance in Children and Self-Care Among Caregivers Through Expressive Arts, co- facilitated by Felicia Li and myself, invited teachers, social workers, and art therapists to use storytelling, emotional identification, affirmation creation, and arts-based story circles as tools for promoting emotional wellbeing. Participants explored how reframing internalized narratives could support both children and caregivers in cultivating emotional literacy, cultural resilience, and self-acceptance.

Exploring Cultural Identity Through Creative Movement

The initiative also extended to the production of The Pa’akai We Bring in collaboration with Honolulu Theatre for Youth. Through this workshop, social workers, teachers, community leaders, and parents engaged in creative movement exercises to explore cultural understandings, identity, and the generational transmission of values. Using gestures and embodied storytelling, participants reflected on the histories and practices passed down through generations, creating an emotional and imaginative bridge between ancestry and identity. The experience illuminated the transformative power of embodied arts practices in fostering intergenerational dialogue, cultural pride, and a deeper sense of belonging.

Impact and Vision Forward

This partnership between the School of Social Work and Krannert Center represents a mutually transformative collaboration. For social work, it offers an expansive model of practice that embraces creativity, relationality, and the arts as critical tools for engagement, reflection, and community-building. For Krannert Center, it demonstrates the Center’s commitment to deepening its role as a public square where education, healing, and social transformation converge through performance and dialogue. Together, the partnership amplifies the power of interdisciplinary collaboration, affirming that social work and the performing arts share a common commitment to fostering social change.

Looking ahead, these workshops provide a blueprint for how expressive arts can be further integrated into social work education and community practice, creating brave spaces where healing, imagination, and justice are not peripheral but central to the work of transformation. There is an exciting vision to expand this initiative by drawing on the scholarly excellence of our university ecosystem to formally evaluate the claims made about the impact of the arts, building an empirical foundation for future interdisciplinary engagement.

Closing Reflection

“Art constitutes one of the rare spaces where acts of transcendence can take place and have a wide-ranging transformative impact.” – bell hooks