The joy of art-based reflection: building shared academic wellbeing literacy through collage

This paper explores how academics individually and collectively reflect on their wellbeing using arts-based approaches to support wellbeing literacy development in professional contexts. Eleven academics from an Australian university engaged in a two-day off-campus retreat using collage as an arts-based inquiry method. Participants created visual representations of their past, present, and future academic experiences, followed by reflective dialogue. Data were analysed using thematic inductive analysis. Three key themes emerged: arts-based approaches facilitated deep reflection through metaphorical thinking; academics’ wellbeing trajectories revealed evolution from past confusion toward more intentional futures; and collective reflection fostered shared wellbeing literacy development. The process illuminated multiple PERMAH dimensions, particularly relationships, meaning, and health. This study demonstrates how arts-based reflection functions simultaneously as professional development and wellbeing practice, developing critical wellbeing literacy that can help embed wellbeing as a core component of academic practice rather than an optional add-on.