26isfam059 10.3205/26isfam059 urn:nbn:de:0183-26isfam0592 Meeting Abstract Brisson Brisson Julien J

University of Toronto

author  Zea  Zea Aaron A

Mas Que Tres Letras

author Castro-Arteaga Castro-Arteaga Mariangela M

University of Toronto

author Luyo Luyo Marianne M

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

author Silva-Santisteban Silva-Santisteban Alfonso A

Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

author Perez-Brumer Perez-Brumer  Amaya  

University of Toronto Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia

author German Medical Science GMS Publishing House

Düsseldorf

610 20260612 engl This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Dieser Artikel ist ein Open-Access-Artikel und steht unter den Lizenzbedingungen der Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (Namensnennung). M0652 059 International Society for Arts and Medicine The Healing Arts – Forging Alliances of Arts & Medicine Presentation Abstracts Berlin 20260618 20260620 26isfam059 TextBackground: Amid Venezuela’s displacement crisis, millions have migrated across Latin America, with Colombia serving as a principal host country. Venezuelan migrants are frequently subjected to violent and stigmatizing public discourses, which are especially acute for gay and bisexual men engaged in sex work and living with HIV.Objectives: This study examines how arts-based research can function as a democratic practice to understand and respond to structural marginalization by enabling made-marginalized migrant communities to challenge stigma and assert alternative forms of knowledge, voice, and visibility.Methods: Between November 2024 and January 2025, six arts-based workshops led were conducted with 13 Venezuelan gay and bisexual men migrants, sex workers in Medellin, Colombia, where participants created different art pieces (e.g., fanzine, upcycling). Workshops incorporated collective discussion and reflection alongside artistic production.Results: Arts-based workshops created spaces for participants to collectively interrogate and resist violent public discourses surrounding migration, sexuality, sex work, and HIV. Workshops functioned as evolving democratic spaces, with group culture and artistic expression shifting through dialogue and creative practice. Community-informed facilitation supported participant agency in shaping artistic form and content, reinforcing the workshops as participatory rather than extractive research spaces. Through art-making as intervention, participants reframed identities, articulated counter-narratives, and transformed stigmatizing representations into affirmations of agency, dignity, belonging, and self-determined visibility.Conclusion: Arts-based research can operate as a form of democratic engagement in research, offering made-vulnerable populations meaningful opportunities to contest violence, produce situated knowledge, and reimagine public narratives at the intersection of art, medicine, and social justice. 0 0 0 0