Conference Program

The research project examines the transformative potential of art-based social work by exploring how artistic practices can be integrated into social work services. It is based on an ethnographic study conducted at the Centro de Referência das Juventudes Novo Horizonte, an experimental state-run service in Espírito Santo, Brazil. The Centre promotes the rights, autonomy, and inclusion of young people aged 15 to 29 living in vulnerable contexts through artistic and cultural workshops, sport, training, and psychosocial support.
The project aims to contribute to the scholarly literature on the effectiveness of art-based social work by providing new empirical evidence. This evidence is intended to foster professional reflexivity and to inform the development of practical tools and operational guidelines that can legitimise and consolidate the use of art as an epistemic and relational resource within social services. The study is situated within the international debate on the use of art in social contexts, highlighting its expressive, participatory, and political dimensions, with particular attention to Brazil, where social work is grounded in an ethical-political project with Marxist and anti-capitalist roots.
The research adopts an anti-oppressive approach, which enables artistic practices to be understood as tools for listening, emancipation, and social transformation. This approach is embedded within a multidisciplinary and multicultural analytical framework drawing on art-based social work, the sociology of art, cultural welfare, and critical social work, including Brazilian ethical-political and critical traditions. The study is paired with a qualitative methodology based on immersive ethnography conducted in collaboration with the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo.
Methods include participant observation focused on care professionals, practitioners, artists, and young people engaged in the Centre’s activities; semi-structured interviews with young participants, professionals, and university faculty; and documentary analysis. The findings show that art-based practices are not marginal interventions, but an integral part of the service’s organisational culture. They intersect with youth languages such as hip-hop and with participatory governance models that value professional, educational, and artistic competencies.
Overall, the study offers an original contribution to critical and anti-oppressive social work debates by proposing situated, participatory, and transformative perspectives for the implementation of art-based practices.