Every day, those working in the arts with young people are presented with endless examples of how our students make progress in understanding the world around them. Quantitative findings to support this are, however, a little harder to come by. Thank goodness for the creative forces at The Paper Birds theatre company who have introduced a project to explore empathy with young people through the arts, both nationally and internationally.
The School of Hope
Artistic director Jemma McDonnell had wanted to explore empathy in response to seeing a harrowing image in 2015 of a young Syrian boy lifeless on a beach. McDonnell was fascinated by the idea that life could keep going on, people completing everyday activities while such horrific events were happening around the world. Like many of The Paper Birds’ projects, the seed of the idea grew into something a little more substantial, coinciding perfectly with lockdown. The idea was to see whether partnering professional artists with young people aged 13–25 could change outcomes for those taking part, looking in particular at improving levels of empathy, community involvement and better mental health.
The School of Hope began in the UK but with the work being online, The Paper Birds quickly saw the opportunity to work with and hear the voices of young participants from across the globe. The project soon became international and saw over 150 young people from Indonesia, Belgium, the USA, Canada and the UK explore their empathy and mental health. The project was monitored by a team of mental health professionals and academics from various universities who helped to carry out the research throughout the process.
The findings
Research has shown that empathy is 90 per cent learned behaviour, in other words, becoming more empathic is something that can be positively improved through what we learn and/or are exposed to. The School of Hope set out to alter empathy levels and on this aim it absolutely succeeded, with the academic researchers concluding through quantitative and qualitative research that the levels of empathy in the young participants had improved. The qualitative research including interviews with participants also revealed positive outcomes, with one student commenting: ‘As a collective, as a core, we definitely have all grown. Emotionally we have matured around each other; The School of Hope has kind of allowed me to accept when I'm hurt and when I'm ok.’ The project has culminated in the creation of a host of artwork, with videos, paintings, writing and mixed media examples available through The School of Hope website.
Feel Me and future projects
There is also an aim with Feel Me to play the show simultaneously to a live theatre audience as well as streaming to audiences online. Jemma sees the chance for this to be an interactive performance: ‘The two audiences will be aware of each other and we will connect them through an app. It's a nod to empathy but also we have found that working online and digitally has made theatre so much more accessible to those who may not be able to visit live theatre.’
The Paper Birds activity: Creative writing from a photograph
McDonnell outlines a brilliant activity used as part of The School of Hope to explore empathy: Either the teacher or students find an image of something that is happening somewhere else in the world. Choose a photo which has a person in the image. Then ask the students to try to write something from the point of view of the person. What are they feeling, thinking, seeing? How are they responding? What does the world look like through their eyes? Complete as a piece of creative writing which could be used in a performance or piece of art, or could just be used to explore the idea of empathy. If the student struggles or doesn't know enough about the person in the image, see where that discussion leads. In this sense, don't worry too much about the outcome as the discussion and the process is the important part of the activity.
The School of Hope has proved to be a rich source of research and development for The Paper Birds’ next production, Feel Me, a show about empathy. There are plans for the work to give an opportunity to a number of young artists to be involved as part of a mentoring programme, where they will shape the work by co-directing the show with artistic director Jemma McDonnell. As Jemma says, ‘We want the piece to feel really engaging and relevant to the young audience that we are making it for.’
Find out more
There is a dedicated website for The School of Hope as well as lots of information on The Paper Birds’ own website and social channels. It is worth keeping an eye out for your own alumni or older students who are working in the arts as they may wish to apply to be one of the artists involved in Feel Me. The Paper Birds also offer in person workshops as well as a brilliant online devising workshop, which I attended myself during the lockdown period and was hugely inspiring.