Impact of expressive textile arts on the needy in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of expressive textile arts on needy people namely, former mental patients and ex-offenders after taking a series of interactive textile arts and fashion creativity workshops from a service learning subject, “Engaging Fashion as a Communication Media for the Needy: Fashion for a Better Future Extravaganza 2016” offered by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University from May to July 2016. In this service learning subject, subject lecturers and students co-designed with the needy people to enhance their self-confidence and rebuild a satisfactory identity through practising expressive textile arts. A total of twenty textile arts prototypes were presented in a mini fashion show and an exhibition, both at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in July 2016. A quantitative research method was adopted in this study and a questionnaire survey was conducted. The research findings suggest that positive impacts are found on the service recipients’ perceptions of “feelings and thoughts before attending the workshops”, “feelings and thoughts during the workshops”, “attitude toward the textile arts materials”, and “attitude toward the expressive textile artworks”.