Assessment • 139Art Assessment Batteries: Families
There are many possible variations in assessment batteries for families as well as in those for
individuals, depending on the age and setting of those involved as well as the art therapist’s
preferences and style of working. In 1967 Hanna Kwiatkowska, inspired by the family ther-
apy that was happening on her inpatient unit at NIMH, as well as by Elinor Ulman’s UPAP
series, designed the first Family Art Evaluation (Ulman & Dachinger, 1975; Kwiatkowska,
1978) (DVD 6.13).
The idea had come to her serendipitously when visiting family members arrived dur-
ing an individual art therapy session she was having with an adolescent, and she realized
that important interpersonal information was revealed when they were invited to use art.
For the evaluation, which was conducted with each family member standing at an easel,
Kwiatkowska requested six tasks: (l) Free Picture, (2) Picture of Your Family, (3) Abstract
Family Portrait, (4) Scribble Drawing, (5) Joint Family Scribble, and (6) Free. Tasks 2, 3, and
5 are demonstrated on the DVD (A) by Patti Rossiter and Mari Fleming.
In 1974 Rubin and Magnussen (Rubin, 2005a) adapted the idea to an outpatient clinic
with younger children, using three tasks: (1) Scribble Drawings, (2) Family Portraits—
abstract or realistic, choice of media and location, and (3) Family Mural. On the DVD (B) of
our Family Art Evaluation you can observe the introduction of each task, as well as portions
of the working and discussion time with one family.
In 1987, Helen Landgarten developed her Family Art Diagnostic: (1) Nonverbal Team
Art Task (pairs of family members, each using one marker color on the same paper), (2)
Nonverbal Family Art Task (whole family working on the same paper), and (3) Verbal
Family Art Task (deciding and working together). The DVD (C) shows her working with a
father and his daughter, requesting a task that requires that each make something individu-
ally and then put them together.
Parenthetically, a three-dimensional procedure was proposed in 1974 by Margaret Frings
Keyes, the Family Clay Sculpture. No doubt there are many creative variations in this area.
Art Assessment Batteries: Couples
In 1971 Harriet Wadeson developed an art evaluation battery for couples as part of a research
project at NIMH. She used four tasks: (l) Family Portrait, (2) Abstract Picture of the Marital
Relationship, (3) Joint Scribble, and (4) Self-Portrait Given to Spouse—to “do anything you
want to him or her.” On the DVD (D) you can observe Wadeson inviting a volunteer couple
to first create a picture together without talking (1), then to draw self-portraits (DVD 6.5),
and after modifying each other’s drawings, to discuss the changes (2).
In 1984 the Menninger Perspective described Robert Ault’s diagnostic drawing series for
couples: (1) Free, (2) Family, (3) Joint Picture of Doing Something Together, (4) Individual
Abstracts of the Marital Relationship, and (5) Self-Portrait Given to Spouse. Just as
Kwiatkowska was inspired by Ulman, so did Ault borrow from Wadeson. There is much
cross-fertilization in the still relatively small field of art therapy. In fact, a survey of assess-
ment in art therapy with children commented on the apparent existence of “an oral tradi-
tion,” in which techniques were passed on to students.
Selection/Creation Art Assessment Batteries
Silver Drawing Test of Cognition & Emotion
One of the most unusual approaches to assessment in art therapy grew out of research by
Rawley Silver (Fig ure 6.14). Inspired by her discovery in their art of untapped capacities in