Introducting Editors CAIP Research Series

Editor

Cheryl McLean MA is an independent scholar and educator and Founder, Publisher and Executive Editor of The International Journal of The Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice IJCAIP and Editor of The CAIP Research Series and books, "Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice Inquiries for Hope and Change" (August 2010) and "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change" (for release October 2011) Associate Editor, Dr. Robert Kelly, University of Calgary, Published by Detselig Enterprises Inc., Calgary, Alberta).

Cheryl McLean has a background in journalism, social science, community education and arts and mental health. (BA, Social Science, University of Western Ontario, London) (MA , Faculty of Fine Art, CAT, Concordia University, Montreal). As an actor and while doing graduate work she also studied in projects for two years (Stanislavski,realism) under the mentorship of Dr. Muriel Gold, formerly the Artistic Director of the Saidye Bronfman Theatre, Montreal. Her research and group therapy work took place with low income seniors in an "over 60 community mental health programme" at Maimonides Jewish Geriatric Hospital and the Rene Cassin Institute of Social Gerontology. She wrote and performed the "ethnodrama" "Remember Me for Birds" based on data gathered in research and true stories (a number of her clients were Holocaust survivors) and toured the educational performance raising awareness about aging, mental health and autonomy in keynote solo presentations for national conferences, universities and medical schools in Canada and the U.S. The work was produced as an educational film in 2006.



An agent of change and longtime arts advocate, as publisher of IJCAIP and Editor of the CAIP Research Series, Cheryl McLean continues to publish new research in the creative arts in interdisciplinary practice and has presented to audiences across Canada contributing to education and knowledge in the emerging international field raising awareness about the vital role the arts have to play for hope and change in communities worldwide. She has taught the course "Creative Responses to Death and Bereavement" at The University of Western Ontario, London and facilitates creative arts for community change workshops for health professionals and others across disciplines at The Windermere Manor (UWO), London. She continues to be an active member of the London arts community with special interests in writing, acting and contemporary theatre.
She is currently researching and writing the third volume in the CAIP research series, VOICE, Transforming cities through citizen stories and the arts in action
CherylMcLean@ijcaip.com

Associate Editor




Robert Kelly Ph.D., Associate Editor CAIP Research series is a leader in Canada in creativity in practice, an artist and educator as well as an author writing about creativity processes in action. Robert Kelly is an associate professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts, and an adjunct associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary where he teaches creativity theory and practice, studio art and curriculum theory and design. Robert’s research is focused on the concept of creativity and its applications for educational practice. Of particular research interest is the nature of idea generation and the development of supporting environments and practice. His recent book Creative Expression, Creative Education (co-edited with Carl Leggo, University of British Columbia) presents the case for creativity as a primary rationale for education. His new book "Educating for Creativity" will be released December 2011.

His creativity research, through his Creativity Education Project, extends to the development of courses on creativity and educational practice and personal creative development for graduate and undergraduate students and the general public.

Robert received his undergraduate training in education at the University of Western Ontario followed by master’s graduate work in art education at the University of Victoria and doctoral work in education at the University of Calgary.

Robert Kelly has been a featured keynote speaker at lectures and workshops across Canada speaking on creativity theory and practice across disciplines.Visit Robert Kelly's website

New book to be released in Fall 2011

Coming Soon!

To be released Fall 2011!

From the book Introduction:

The book "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change" Editor, Cheryl McLean, Associate Editor, Dr. Robert Kelly, University of Calgary, published by Detselig Enterprises Ltd., Calgary, is a project of The International Journal of the Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, IJCAIP. Publishing activities at IJCAIP have contributed significantly to propagating a new and fertile knowledge base for research and information about the creative arts in interdisciplinary practice for community change. In the first book in the CAIP Series, “Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice, Inquiries for Hope and Change”, released August 2010, it was our intention to show, by way of example, the considerable breadth and scope of the research. The book was a varied and multifaceted collection of creative research in action, an accessible academic text that introduced readers to new inquiries and processes while offering first hand insights into approaches.

“Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change”, the second text in the series, takes a global perspective featuring projects that have used the creative arts applied in research for community and cultural change. The articles in this second volume have been divided into four thematically related sections:

Community Action and Education through Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice; Images for Witness, Community Action in Disability and Health; Arts Exploring Immigrant Experience and Cultural Identities; Human Stories “from the outside in” for Community and Cultural Change.

Many of the researchers, artists, educators, participants and community members you will read about in these accounts strive for change by joining together in interdisciplinary projects to address the most fundamental of human needs, the need for a healthy and safe communities with water to drink and air to breathe, the need for human expression and connection, the desire to be accepted and acknowledged as a human being of value and to voice their personal stories for witness whether it is from a stage, a study circle, a kitchen table or to be experienced in the photographs of a community of women, street workers, recording their stories of survival on the perilous streets of the inner city.

There is hope for change within these pages as we learn about the day to day lives of those who live on the margins, those whose stories are seldom heard. As Liz Day and John J. Guiney Yallop express so eloquently in the article, Four Poems for Four Lives, A Study of Four Ex-prisoners through Poetic Inquiry, “We believe that all human experience is of value and that all human experience has something to teach us.” For me, this statement became a touchstone, at times guiding the editing journey, an underlying theme I often referred to in the shaping of this volume.

Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change is fundamentally a book about the arts in action and practice, about people and communities making a difference through arts processes and democratic change. It may be true that we are shaped by culture and yet as is clearly evidenced by the articles in this book culture itself can be artfully shaped and re/formed within communities by the hands of the people who daily transform it.

We hope you will learn from these articles, we expect many will be transformed by what they witness through these accounts and a few might be inspired to take action themselves launching new initiatives and igniting change for the betterment of places, for the life of our cities and all who call them home and because they believe in the arts and all that communities, in action, together, can accomplish.

Our journey continues.

Cheryl McLean, Editor