Art in the social field (Kunst im Sozialen)

1. Introduction

Version followed: the German-language field "Kunst im Sozialen" as taught in the B.A. "Kunst im Sozialen. Kunsttherapie" at the Hochschule für Künste im Sozialen (HKS), Ottersberg (Modulhandbuch, PO version 2018, summer semester 2026), and pädagogische Kunsttherapie in social work as set out by Domma (2016). Its conceptual root is Joseph Beuys's erweiterter Kunstbegriff and soziale Plastik (social sculpture). The most fully described Beuys-derived group procedures are Shelley Sacks's social sculpture "connective practices" (Earth Forum, Exchange Values, Journaling for Change), and these are added here. [source: HKS Modulhandbuch; Domma 2016; Sacks, Contemporary Social Sculpture]

What it is. Kunst im Sozialen is a field and a training tradition, not one manualised therapy. It covers art-based work, including art therapy, in social settings: social work, homes for people with disabilities, youth facilities, schools, prisons, refugee counselling, open studios, museums and public space. It also covers participatory art projects in communities. There is no single founder, manual or session protocol. HKS Ottersberg was founded in 1967 as an independent fine-arts study centre and has taught art therapy since 1986. Its English name for the field is "Arts in Social Contexts". [source: HKS Facts & Figures; socialnet Lexikon]

Lineage. Beuys held that "Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler". This names a creative capacity that everyone has, not a talent for painting. With "soziale Plastik" he extended sculpture to thinking, speech and the shaping of society itself. The socialnet lexicon says this idea gave art therapy a direct point of reference and helped it extend into pedagogy and social work. Domma (2016, p. 17) cautions that appeals to Beuys's expanded concept of art are not a sufficient scientific grounding for this work. In his view, practice must also rest on social-work theory. [source: Goethe-Institut; Kunstsammlung NRW booklet; socialnet; Domma 2016]

How change is thought to happen. In Domma's account, change comes through open-ended aesthetic activity in a workshop setting that participants have negotiated and freely chosen. Making images supports symbol formation and imagination. The finished work becomes a way to communicate personal life themes, and this strengthens self-efficacy and participation. In Sacks's social sculpture, change comes when inner and outer work meet. Attentive listening and "imaginal" contemplation of a shared object or situation produce new insight, and that insight becomes commitment and action, which Sacks calls being "response-able". [source: Domma 2016 pp. 21–28; Festl & Oster 2022; Sacks; McGarry 2013 pp. 26, 32–33]

2. Framework

No source gives a fixed phase model or a set number of sessions for Kunst im Sozialen as a whole. The building blocks below are the formats the sources describe. The overall project cycle is my own [synthesis], built from them.

Formats described in sources

• Open studio (offenes Atelier). Example: weekly, 2 hours, in a multi-purpose room on a forensic admission ward. Materials and tea are set out, attendance is free and open-ended, and the art therapist accompanies rather than leads. [source: Festl & Oster 2022 p. 2]
• Workshop or studio principle and project work in social work, built on voluntary participation and on offers negotiated with participants. [source: Domma 2016 pp. 21–28]
• Interdisciplinary and participatory projects that use participatory research, art in public space, and exhibition. [source: HKS Modulhandbuch KS P1/P2, KS-6, KS-10]
• Settings for art-therapeutic interventions: individual, group, couple and family. Approaches named are depth-psychological, systemic and solution-oriented, resource-oriented, anthroposophical, and integrative or intermodal (including Expressive Arts and embodiment-oriented methods). [source: HKS KS-7]
• Earth Forum. Small groups of about 8–12 (one Berlin listing; the number is partly illegible in Sacks's text) sit around an oiled ground cloth for sessions of about 3 hours. Two sessions a day were run at Berlin and Leuphana. [source: sustainablepractice.org; Leuphana 2013; Sacks]
• Longer social sculpture formats include multi-day labs, FRAMETALKS (12- to 24-hour assemblies) and city-wide projects such as Ort des Treffens in Hannover, 2008–2010. [source: Brookes profile]

Project cycle for a clinician delivering or adapting the work [synthesis]

Sacks's Earth Forum and Exchange Values follow their own internal sequence. Each starts with observation or the introduction of listening and imaginal work, then moves to "coming to oneself", then "going out" (sharing), then "coming back in" (imaginal sense-making), and ends with a collective synthesis. Her overall gesture for this is going out, coming in, and going out again. [source: Sacks]

Professional frame.

• Germany. The title Kunsttherapeut/in is not protected. Practising Heilkunde, meaning the treatment of illness, requires a Heilpraktiker licence (some routes use the Heilpraktiker für Psychotherapie) or Approbation (state licensing as a physician or psychotherapist). Many graduates work legally in social-pedagogical fields without these, provided they do not offer treatment of illness. Training runs through Bachelor and Master programmes, such as HKS's 180–210 ECTS Bachelor with 150-hour and 300-hour mentored practica and supervision, or through private further training of variable quality. [source: socialnet; HKS KS-5, KS-9]
• Associations. DFKGT (the largest), DGKT, BVAKT (anthroposophic art therapy), DAGTP (clinical), VDKT (psychosocial) and BKT. Most belong to the BAG KT umbrella. Austria has ÖBKT, where art therapy is unregulated; Switzerland has the federal diploma "Kunsttherapeut/in (ED)" since 2011; Europe has EFAT. In the UK, art therapy is a state-registered profession; the regulator is the HCPC and the professional body is BAAT. [source: socialnet; brief]
• No regulated role. There is no regulated profession of social sculpture or participatory art. Earth Forum facilitators ("responsible participants") are trained in a four-day intensive by Sacks's Social Sculpture Lab. [source: Brookes profile]
• Who should do what. A psychotherapist without art therapy training can host open, non-interpretive arts activity and dialogue formats inside their own licensed scope. Art-therapeutic diagnostics, interpretation of images, and intensive regressive or trauma-focused material work need art therapy training and supervision. [synthesis]

Materials and physical safety [synthesis]

• Use non-toxic, water-based paints and children's-grade materials.
• Avoid solvents, spray paints and fixatives indoors. Ventilate the room.
• Control clay dust: wet-clean surfaces and do not sweep dry clay.
• Sharp tools (cutters, saws, carving tools) need supervision. In forensic, psychiatric or self-harm-risk settings, count tools out and back in.
• Beuys-associated materials such as fat, felt, honey and wax raise hygiene and allergy questions. Check for food allergies before using honey, wax or food materials.
• Public-space projects need permits, plus planning for traffic, weather and lifting. Tree planting, as in 7000 Eichen, needs a landowner's permission.
• An oiled cloth on the floor is a slip hazard. Some participants cannot sit on the floor, so offer chairs.

3. Guiding principles

• "Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler" means capacity, not talent. Treat every participant as able to shape something, and never sort people by skill. [source: Goethe-Institut; Kunstsammlung NRW]
• Social sculpture: speech, thought and relationships are also material. A conversation, a decision or a group agreement counts as part of the work, not only the object made. [source: Kunstsammlung NRW; Goethe-Institut]
• Voluntariness and creative autonomy. Materials and themes are offers, not tasks. Participants decide whether, what and how long. Festl & Oster's patients summed this up as "man muss nichts, man kann". [source: Domma 2016 p. 24; Festl & Oster 2022 pp. 4–5]
• Openness of the aesthetic task (Domma, citing Richter). Set open problems with no single right result, and avoid templates and craft kits. [source: Domma 2016 p. 20]
• A workshop or studio, not a craft room (Werkstatt- bzw. Atelierprinzip, "nicht Bastelstube"). Offer real materials, a real workspace, and seriousness about the work. [source: Domma 2016 pp. 21–22]
• Negotiation (Aushandlung, after Thiersch). Shape the content and frame together with participants and the institution. [source: Domma 2016 p. 28]
• Pedagogical regression and progression. Choose materials to suit the person's developmental level, for example early, unstructured materials for very low functioning. Then raise the demands step by step. [source: Domma 2016 pp. 18–19]
• Symbol formation and imagination as goals. Value the image as a carrier of meaning and play, not as a product to be judged. [source: Domma 2016 p. 26]
• The work as communicable expression. The image can carry life themes into conversation. Invite talk, but don't require it. [source: Domma 2016 pp. 26–27]
• Lifeworld and social-space orientation. Locate projects in participants' everyday places and networks. [source: Domma 2016 p. 31]
• The therapist accompanies rather than leads in open formats. Be present, available and supportive, and make few directives. [source: Festl & Oster 2022 p. 2]
• Responsible participant, not facilitator. In Sacks's processes, the guide also takes part. There is "nothing to moderate or mediate", so you hold the form rather than steer the content. [source: McGarry 2013 §1.6, quoting Sacks]
• Listen actively, without discussion. While someone shares, others listen without debating or responding. Sense-making comes later. [source: Sacks]
• Imaginal alongside calculative thought. Deliberately alternate analysis with contemplative, image-based thinking. [source: Brookes profile; Sacks]
• Inner and outer work coincide. Link each person's inner experience to an outer situation, such as a place, an economic chain or a community. [source: McGarry 2013 p. 26, citing Sacks]
• No predetermined outcomes. Do not steer toward a correct insight. [source: Leuphana 2013]
• "Instruments of consciousness" rather than "objects of attention". Design frames that make people perceive and think, not exhibits to admire. [source: Brookes profile]
• Response-ability. The aim is the ability to respond, which is commitment and action, not only expression. [source: McGarry 2013 p. 32]
• Methodological pluralism within a biopsychosocial frame. HKS teaches depth-psychological, systemic, resource-oriented, anthroposophical and intermodal approaches side by side. Name which approach you are using. Anthroposophical concepts of the human being belong to that tradition's own theory; never present them as fact. [source: HKS KS-2, KS-4, KS-7]
• Ground the work theoretically beyond Beuys. Use social-work theories such as systems theory and Staub-Bernasconi's needs orientation for indication and goals. [source: Domma 2016 pp. 17, 32–34]
• Ethics and professional law. Work within indication, ethics, professional law and guideline knowledge. Document and evaluate the work, and take supervision. [source: HKS KS-7–KS-9]
• Keep a clear boundary between arts activity and therapy. Tell participants whether a format is therapy, education or community art, and contract accordingly. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

Part A covers the art-therapy and social-work formats named in the German sources (HKS, Domma, Festl & Oster). Part B covers the Beuys-derived social sculpture procedures published by Sacks and her circle. The sources name these formats but do not give session scripts. All step lists are therefore my operationalisation [synthesis] unless a step is tagged with a source. All example language is illustrative.

A1. Open studio (offenes Atelier)

• Purpose / when. A low-threshold meeting space where people can express themselves and experience self-efficacy. Suits wards, residential homes, refugee and homelessness services, youth facilities and prisons. Use it where formal therapy is refused or impossible, or as an entry point to it. [source: Festl & Oster 2022 p. 2; socialnet]
• Steps.
  1. Fix a regular slot, for example weekly for 2 hours, in a room participants can reach freely. [source: Festl & Oster p. 2]
  2. Set the table before people arrive: chalk, coloured pencils, felt markers, liquid gouache, and papers in several formats. Add tea and art catalogues as a source of ideas. [source: Festl & Oster p. 2]
  3. Invite people personally, and also let them simply drop in. Arriving late, leaving early and coming irregularly are all fine. [source: Festl & Oster p. 4]
  4. Let each person choose what to do, including only watching or talking. [source: Festl & Oster pp. 2, 5]
  5. Move around, offer help with technique when asked, and show interest in the work without interpreting it. [synthesis]
  6. Ten minutes before the end, give a tidy-up signal. Store works safely in named folders, and let people choose whether to keep, store or display their work. [synthesis]
  7. After each session, write a short note: who came, which media, notable themes and risk observations. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative). "The materials are here for you. You don't have to make anything. You're welcome to just have tea." "Would you like me to show you how gouache handles when it's diluted?"
• Watch for. Repeat attendance, people arranging to come together, people calling it their place (one patient called it a "Heimathafen"), and longer, more self-directed work. These signal that it is working. A room that is purely functional can put people off, so make it inviting. Flag crises or disclosures to the ward or team according to local procedure. [source: Festl & Oster pp. 4–5]

A2. Workshop/studio principle with an open aesthetic task (Werkstatt-/Atelierprinzip)

• Purpose / when. Subject-centred aesthetic projects in social work that treat participants as producers rather than consumers of craft activities. Use it for groups or individuals in ongoing social-work contact. [source: Domma 2016 pp. 20–22]
• Steps.
  1. Set up a real workspace with quality materials. Avoid templates and pre-cut kits. [source: Domma pp. 21–22]
  2. Pose an open problem rather than a product. Examples: "a place where I'd like to be", "something that holds", or a material experiment with no theme. [source: Domma p. 20 for openness; examples synthesis]
  3. Present the material and theme as an offer, and accept alternatives. [source: Domma p. 24]
  4. Support technique and persistence, and do not take over the work. [synthesis]
  5. End with optional sharing of the work as communicable expression. [source: Domma pp. 26–27]
• Example language (illustrative). "There's no right result here. Try out what this material does when you press, tear or layer it."
• Watch for. People asking "what should it look like?" and copying others. Treat this as an early stage and offer two or three concrete starting points. You know it is working when participants pick their own themes and when the work carries personal meaning and imagination (symbol formation). [source: Domma p. 26; response synthesis]

A3. Pedagogical regression and progression in material choice

• Purpose / when. Match the material to the participant's developmental level, then increase demands step by step. Use it with people with intellectual disability, severe psychiatric illness, children, and anyone overwhelmed by open tasks. [source: Domma 2016 pp. 18–19]
• Steps.
  1. Assess what the person can manage: fine motor control, frustration tolerance, and tolerance of mess. [synthesis]
  2. Start with early, sensory, forgiving materials (finger paint, soft clay, large crayons on big paper) when needed. [source: Domma p. 18 for the principle; examples synthesis]
  3. When the person masters these and shows interest, add structure: tools, smaller formats, planning, multi-step techniques. [source: Domma p. 19 for the principle]
  4. Go back to simpler materials at times of stress. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative). "Today let's just see what happens when the colour runs. No picture needed."
• Watch for. Regression that disorganises the person: smearing that escalates, loss of boundaries, or dissociation. If this happens, switch to contained materials and smaller formats, and bring the person back to the here and now. [synthesis]

A4. Negotiated participatory project (Projektarbeit, Aushandlung)

• Purpose / when. A shared art project developed with a group or community, for example a mural, a publication, an installation or a neighbourhood map. Use it when the goals include participation, group cohesion or a changed public image of the group. [source: Domma 2016 pp. 27–30; HKS KS P1/P2]
• Steps.
  1. Hold a negotiation round. What concerns you here? What would you like to make, for whom, and where? [source: Domma p. 28 for negotiation; questions synthesis]
  2. Use participatory research to collect themes: walks, photos, short interviews, mapping. [source: HKS KS P1 names participatory research; methods synthesis]
  3. Agree the roles, timeline, decision rule and consent rules, including who appears in images and who is credited. [synthesis]
  4. Run work phases with short reflection rounds. Take your own reflection to co-teaching or supervision. [source: HKS P1/P2 for co-teaching, reflection and project forums]
  5. Present the result (see A7) and evaluate it with the participants. [source: HKS; synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative). "This project belongs to the group. My job is to keep the frame and help with the craft."
• Watch for. The professional's own aesthetic agenda taking over. Domination by a few participants. Projects that expose a stigmatised group. You know it is working when participants defend decisions as theirs. [synthesis]

A5. Art in public space (Kunst im öffentlichen Raum)

• Purpose / when. Make participants' perspectives visible in shared space and act on the social environment, which is the core gesture of social sculpture. Beuys's 7000 Eichen (documenta 7, 1982 onward) is the model. Donors bought basalt columns, citizens chose each stone's site, and an oak was planted beside each one. Sacks reads it as a practice for building citizenship capacity. [source: Goethe-Institut; McGarry 2013 pp. 29–30; HKS KS-6]
• Steps [synthesis]
  1. Choose a site that matters to participants.
  2. Get permission from the landowner or municipality.
  3. Design so that people outside the group can take part or respond, for example by choosing locations, adding contributions or caring for the work.
  4. Plan for weather, vandalism and how long the work should last.
  5. Debrief public reactions together.
• Example language (illustrative). "What would you want passers-by to notice about this street?"
• Watch for. Hostile public reactions toward vulnerable participants, and safety on site. Offer participants anonymous ways to take part. [synthesis]

A6. Werk- und Prozessbetrachtung (looking at the work and the process)

• Purpose / when. Reflect on a finished work and on how it was made. HKS teaches phenomenological, hermeneutic, anthroposophical and systemic models for this. The specific protocols are not drawn on [uncertain]. [source: HKS KS-4]
• Steps [synthesis, following a generic phenomenological-to-hermeneutic order]
  1. Ask permission to look at the work together.
  2. Have the maker describe what is visible (colours, forms, materials, placement) before any meaning is discussed.
  3. Recall the process: where did you start, and where did it change or get stuck?
  4. Ask about personal resonance, if the maker wants to go there.
  5. Optional systemic question: who else would see what in this picture?
  6. Close with a title or a next step.
• Example language (illustrative). "Before we talk about what it means, just tell me what you see." "Where in the process did something change?"
• Watch for. Imposed interpretation. Never present a picture as evidence of abuse or disorder. [synthesis]

A7. Exhibition and presentation

• Purpose / when. Gain recognition, take on a public role, and change how others see the group. [source: HKS KS-10 for artistic presentation and exhibition; clinical use synthesis]
• Steps [synthesis]
  1. Get individual written consent for each work, covering name or anonymity, venue, photos, online use and later sale.
  2. Involve participants in selecting, hanging and naming the works.
  3. Prepare for criticism and media contact.
  4. Hold an opening that participants can host or skip.
  5. Debrief afterwards.
• Example language (illustrative). "Nothing goes on the wall without your yes, and you can change your mind until the day before."
• Watch for. Revealing personal material (disclosures in images), especially from minors or forensic patients, and pressure from the institution to showcase. [synthesis]

A8. Biographical reflection with artistic media

• Purpose / when. Use art media to work on one's own life history. HKS lists it as part of training and art-therapy approaches. With clients, it suits biography work in elder care, migration and transitions. [source: HKS KS-4; socialnet names biography work]
• Steps [synthesis]
  1. Choose a frame: a timeline strip, a series of boxes, or maps of the places lived.
  2. Work section by section across sessions.
  3. Let the client decide what stays private.
  4. Look back over the series (see A6).
• Example language (illustrative). "Pick one place from your life and make it with these materials. Anything is fine."
• Watch for. Traumatic memories that come up unplanned. Pace the work, and offer resource themes as well as burden themes. [synthesis]

A9. Perception training (drawing basics)

• Purpose / when. HKS teaches basic drawing, including life and portrait drawing, and work with colour, surface, space, form, material, movement and time as artistic grounding for the practitioner. Simple observational drawing can also be offered to clients to support grounding and attention. That client use is [synthesis]. [source: HKS KS-1]
• Steps [synthesis]
  1. Give the client a single object to draw.
  2. Have them look for 1 minute.
  3. Have them draw slowly for 5 to 10 minutes.
  4. Talk briefly about what they noticed.
• Watch for. Self-critique about skill. Re-frame the task as seeing, not drawing well.

A10. Art-therapeutic diagnostics and projective instruments

• Purpose / when. HKS teaches diagnostic procedures and projective instruments within its interventions module. The specific instruments are not named [uncertain]. [source: HKS KS-7]
• Use. Only with art therapy training. Use only published instruments, within their published validity and reliability. Use them to support hypotheses, never as stand-alone proof. In social-work settings without a Heilkunde mandate, do not use diagnostics. [source: socialnet on Heilkunde; synthesis]

A11. Intermodal work

• HKS names integrative or intermodal approaches, including Expressive Arts Therapy and embodiment-oriented methods. Socialnet names intermedial work combining music, drama, dance and poetry. See the Expressive Arts entries for procedures. This entry does not detail them. [source: HKS KS-7; socialnet]

B1. Earth Forum (Sacks, Social Sculpture Lab / University of the Trees)

• Purpose / when. Earth Forum is a mobile "permanent conference" and an experiential process. It links thought, feeling and action, makes people's different takes on the world visible, and builds active listening, imaginal contemplation and empathy. It is used with citizens, students, NGOs and young changemakers. It is not a therapy. In clinical use it suits groups facing shared situations such as eco-anxiety, community conflict or institutional change [synthesis]. Sacks first developed it in 2002 and reworked it in 2011 using imaginal methods from Exchange Values. [source: Brookes profile; Leuphana 2013; McGarry 2013 abstract]
• Setting. A small group, about 8–12, sits around an oiled ground cloth. Each session lasts about 3 hours. The guide is a trained "responsible participant", and the procedure is set out in an Earth Forum Handbook (Sacks et al.), which is not drawn on [uncertain]. [source: Sacks; sustainablepractice.org; McGarry 2013 TOC]
• Steps. These are the published sequence; timings and wording within each step are not given.
  1. Introduce active listening and imaginal work so participants experience their own "inner workspace". [source: Sacks]
  2. Build awareness, then move to questions. Turn attention to existing mind-sets about how we live on the planet, at the scale of neighbourhood, city and world, and to what Sacks calls "what is calling from the future". [source: sustainablepractice.org; Sacks]
  3. Coming to oneself. Each person quietly re-enters what they experienced in the earlier phase. [source: Sacks]
  4. Going out. Each person shares part of that distilled experience. Others listen without discussion. [source: Sacks]
  5. Coming back in. Everyone works imaginally with what was shared, to make sense of it. [source: Sacks]
  6. Closing. Individual insights are worked on together into "social honey", which is more than the sum of the parts. This echoes Beuys's honey as an image of creative thought. [source: Sacks; Kunstsammlung NRW]
• Example language (illustrative, not Sacks's script). "Take a moment to go back into what you just noticed, as if you were standing inside it again." "When someone speaks, we just listen. No replies, no discussion yet."
• Watch for. Debate creeping in during the sharing phase. If it does, gently restate the listening form. You know it is working when participants can describe another person's take in that person's own terms, and when commitments to act emerge. Training: Earth Forum facilitation is taught in a four-day intensive. Do not present yourself as an Earth Forum facilitator without it. [source: Brookes profile; Leuphana 2013 on understanding the other's view; synthesis]

B2. Exchange Values "at the table" (observation, re-entry, listening, imaginal exploration)

• Purpose / when. Use a concrete object, originally numbered banana skins traced to Windward Islands growers, as an interface to an invisible social or economic reality. Participants imagine the lives behind it and explore their own responsibility. The project ran as day-long intensives, for example 18 at the Frans Hals Museum in 2017–18. [source: Brookes profile; McGarry 2013 §1.6]
• Steps.
  1. Careful observation ("presencing") of the object generates initial interest. [source: Sacks]
  2. Re-entering the observation in the inner workspace, with non-judgemental eyes. [source: Sacks]
  3. Sharing with active listening, without discussion. [source: Sacks]
  4. Staying in the imaginal mode to explore what was gathered, until insights for personal or group action arise. [source: Sacks]
  • Sacks maps this sequence onto a progression she draws from Steiner and Beuys: imagination, then inspiration, then intuition, which becomes commitment. This is attributed theory, not established psychology. [source: Sacks]
• Adapting for a social or clinical group [synthesis]. Choose an everyday object that links the group to a shared reality: a medication box, a food-bank item, a piece of clothing, a photo of the neighbourhood. Use the same four steps. Do not use objects tied to individual trauma.
• Example language (illustrative). "Just look at it, longer than feels necessary." "Who might have touched this before it reached you?"
• Watch for. Guilt spirals or shaming of consumers. Turn these toward capacity to respond. [synthesis]

B3. Journaling for Change ("dialogue with oneself: dialogue with the world")

• Purpose / when. A reflective practice for noticing patterns over time. It has been used in Sacks's graduate programmes since the late 1990s. It can serve as between-session work. [source: Sacks]
• Steps.
  1. Set aside a margin on each page. [source: Sacks]
  2. Gather material uncensored, stream-of-consciousness style. Sketches and images are allowed [synthesis]. [source: Sacks]
  3. Commit to re-entering the material periodically. [source: Sacks]
  4. Reflect in the margins to uncover connections and patterns. [source: Sacks]
• Example language (illustrative). "Write or draw without editing. Once a week, read it back and note in the margin what keeps returning."
• Watch for. Rumination. If entries only intensify distress, add a resource prompt or shorten the practice. [synthesis]

B4. Re-centring the Movement (Dhaliwhal)

• Purpose / when. A connective practice for NGOs and activist groups to "decolonise" their aims, agendas and relationships, and to examine their own agency in relation to power. It can be adapted for team or institutional reflection [synthesis]. [source: Sacks, describing Dhaliwhal's practice]
• Steps. The group sits around a large black cloth. Each person enters their own experience imaginally (coming to oneself), shares if they choose (going out), and then the group works imaginally together to make sense of what was shared (coming back to the larger situation). [source: Sacks]
• Watch for. Power differences in the room, such as managers alongside staff, and risks for people who disclose experiences of discrimination. Keep sharing optional and agree confidentiality. [synthesis]

B5. Agents of Change climate-crisis kit (Reed)

• Purpose / when. An embodied frame for exploring perceptions and feelings about the climate crisis and possible responses. [source: Sacks, describing James Reed's kit]
• Steps. Participants put on orange lifejackets and use measuring poles that show predicted water rise. They enter the present moment, explore their perceptions and feelings, and consider possible responses. Insights are shared, and the group builds "social substance" from what it heard. [source: Sacks]
• Watch for. The kit may overwhelm people with climate anxiety or with lived experience of flooding or displacement. Screen for this, offer a role as observer, and close with grounding and agency. [synthesis]

B6. Field of Commitment

• Purpose / when. Each person or group links to a tree partner or a specific place, makes a minimum commitment (one example given is to "not look away"), and shares insights and actions in local or online forums. Clinically it can serve as a commitment and behavioural-activation bridge [synthesis]. [source: Brookes profile]
• Steps [synthesis, from the source description]
  1. Choose a place or tree.
  2. Phrase a small commitment you can keep.
  3. Visit regularly and note what you perceive.
  4. Report back in the group.
• Watch for. Commitments that are too large. Keep them minimal, as the source does. [source; synthesis]

B7. Dialogue as sculpture: permanent conference and forum formats

• Purpose / when. Beuys treated speech as a plastic process. At documenta 5 (1972), his Organisation für direkte Demokratie held daily debates with visitors. At documenta 6 (1977), the Freie Internationale Universität met for 100 days, with the Honigpumpe am Arbeitsplatz as a visible counterpart and a "permanent conference" with weekly discussions. Sacks continues this line in formats such as FRAMETALKS (12–24 hour assemblies) and deep-listening assemblies. [source: Kunstsammlung NRW; McGarry 2013 pp. 27–28; Brookes profile]
• Use in a social setting [synthesis]. Set up a recurring, open forum, for example in a residential home or a neighbourhood, where residents' concerns are treated as shared material to shape. Give it a fixed time and place, an open invitation, a listening-first rule, and a visible record of decisions such as a wall or an object that grows.
• Example language (illustrative). "This forum is a workshop for how we live here. What we say is the material."
• Watch for. Talk that never leads to change. Agree one small, visible action per cycle. [synthesis]

B8. Practitioner self-practice and the responsible participant stance

• Purpose / when. Social sculpture asks the guide to take part, not to stand outside the process. Sacks's own term for the guide is "responsible participant", and in Exchange Values she said there was no facilitator. [source: McGarry 2013 §1.6]
• Steps [synthesis]
  1. Before each session, do the listening and imaginal exercise yourself.
  2. During the session, hold the form (time, order, listening rule) and contribute briefly and authentically when it is your turn.
  3. Afterwards, journal (B3) and take the session to supervision. [source: HKS KS-5/KS-9 for supervision]
• Watch for. Blurring the role in clinical groups. As a psychotherapist you keep clinical responsibility (risk, safeguarding) even when you are "participating". [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about handling problems. Where a point has a source it is tagged. Everything else is my own [synthesis].

• Non-attendance or irregular attendance in open formats. In an open studio this is expected, and it is not non-adherence. Festl & Oster's patients valued being able to come and go without pressure. What helps is keeping the slot reliable and inviting people personally (A1). Pressure to attend undermines the core of an open studio. [source: Festl & Oster pp. 4–5]
• The "I can't draw" stuckness. This is the "Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler" problem in practice: people confuse capacity with talent. Offer material experiments with no picture expected, pedagogical regression (A3), observation tasks (A9), or collaging found images. [synthesis; principle from Goethe-Institut and Domma]
• Unappealing room or institutional constraints. One patient criticised a purely functional room. Make the space look like a studio (displayed works, good light, catalogues) and negotiate a room that is reliably available. [source: Festl & Oster p. 5; response synthesis]
• The institution wants a showcase or a product. Clarify the mandate in Phase 0. Name the difference between a studio and a craft room (Bastelstube). Protect participants' right not to exhibit (A7). [source: Domma pp. 21–22; synthesis]
• Resistance to the "art" frame, or to the idea that everything is sculpture. Some participants or staff find Beuys-style framing pretentious. Drop the theory language and keep the practice concrete. Domma also notes that the Beuys reference alone is not a sufficient grounding, so use social-work language (participation, self-efficacy, needs). [source: Domma p. 17; synthesis]
• Discussion takes over a listening round (Earth Forum, Exchange Values, Re-centring). Restate the form: "for now we only listen". Collect responses for the "coming back in" phase. [source: Sacks for the listening-without-discussion rule; response synthesis]
• Overwhelm or retraumatisation in imaginal re-entry (B1–B5), biography work (A8) or regression (A3).
  • Screen beforehand for recent trauma, dissociation, psychosis and acute crisis.
  • Make each step opt-in and offer an observer role.
  • Keep eyes-open options for imaginal work.
  • Have a grounding routine ready: naming objects in the room, feet on the floor, handling a cold or textured material.
  • Shorten or stop the phase, and offer an individual follow-up.
  • Imaginal re-entry is not trauma exposure therapy. Do not use it to process traumatic memories in a group. [synthesis]
• Climate or eco-anxiety amplified (B1, B5). Balance perception of the threat with the agency phase (commitment, social honey). Refer to individual therapy if distress persists. [synthesis]
• Disclosure through images or in a forum. If a work or statement suggests abuse, self-harm or risk to others, do not interpret it as proof. Talk with the person, then follow local safeguarding and mandatory-reporting procedures. With children and young people:
  • Get guardian consent and the young person's own assent.
  • Get separate consent for exhibiting or photographing their work.
  • Do not publish identifiable images of minors in care.
  • Tell the young person in advance about the limits of confidentiality. [synthesis]
• Suicide or self-harm risk in settings such as forensic, psychiatric or homelessness services.
  • Count sharp tools out and back in.
  • Assess risk according to current standard practice and your service's protocol.
  • Share concerns with the team. [synthesis]
• Ruptures in participatory projects. Typical ruptures are conflict over aesthetic decisions, a few members dominating, and the professional overriding the group. Return to the negotiation round (A4) and the agreed decision rule. Name your own aesthetic preference and step back from it. Take the issue to supervision or co-teaching reflection. [source: Domma p. 28; HKS P1/P2; synthesis]
• Exposure of stigmatised groups in public-space projects or exhibitions. Offer anonymous participation and pseudonyms, rehearse responses to hostile reactions, and keep the option to withdraw a work. [synthesis]
• Role confusion: therapy or community art?
  • In Germany, offering treatment of illness requires Heilkunde authorisation.
  • Contract explicitly. A social-pedagogical arts offer must not be advertised as therapy.
  • Clinical art therapy needs trained practitioners.
  • Sacks's processes are not therapies, and they need her facilitator training if delivered under their names. [source: socialnet; Brookes profile; synthesis]
• Spiritual or anthroposophical framing. Concepts such as warmth as a sculptural force (Sacks, after Beuys), Steiner's imagination–inspiration–intuition, and anthroposophical views of the human being belong to their own traditions. Attribute them as such. Do not present them as psychological fact or as a treatment for illness. [source: Sacks; McGarry 2013 pp. 35–36; HKS KS-2]
• Materials incidents (allergy, ingestion of materials, injuries). Follow the safety list in Section 2. Keep a first-aid kit and an incident log. [synthesis]
• Ending. Long-running open studios and forums create attachment, and Festl & Oster's patients described the studio as a "home port". Announce endings early, mark them with a closing ritual or exhibition, hand works back, and arrange onward options such as community studios. [source: Festl & Oster p. 5; synthesis]

Not stated in the sources [uncertain]:

• The Earth Forum Handbook text and its exact timings.
• HKS's specific protocols for Werk- und Prozessbetrachtung and its projective instruments.
• Beuys's own statements on therapy.
• Primary texts by Schorer (2002) and Lützenkirchen (2011), who are cited by Domma for the link between Beuys and social work.
• The University of the Trees site.

Sources

Sources

• HKS Ottersberg – Modulhandbuch Kunst im Sozialen. Kunsttherapie (B.A.), SoSe 2026
• HKS Ottersberg – Facts & Figures
• Domma, W. (Hg.) (2016) Pädagogische Kunsttherapie und Soziale Arbeit, Barbara Budrich (OAPEN open access)
• Festl, K. & Oster, J. (2022) Die Sicht forensisch-psychiatrischer Patienten … auf das offene Atelier, GMS Journal of Arts Therapies 4, Doc01
• socialnet Lexikon – Kunsttherapeutin/Kunsttherapeut
• Goethe-Institut – Die Kunst des Joseph Beuys
• Kunstsammlung NRW – Begleitheft "Jeder Mensch ist ein Künstler"
• Oxford Brookes – Professor Shelley Sacks (staff profile)
• Sacks, S. – Contemporary Social Sculpture and the Field of Transformation (RADAR, Oxford Brookes)
• McGarry, D. (2013) Empathy in the Time of Ecological Apartheid, PhD thesis, Rhodes University
• Leuphana Konferenzwoche 2013 – Earth Forum
• sustainablepractice.org (Cultura21) – Shelley Sacks tag (Earth Forum Berlin listing)

Further reading (not drawn on)

• Sacks, S. et al., Earth Forum Handbook (Oxford: Social Sculpture Research Unit) [uncertain].
• Schorer (2002) and Lützenkirchen (2011), as cited in Domma 2016 [uncertain].