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

A book illustrating the arts in action for change

from book Introduction, "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change"

C. McLean

Culture at its best can be an enriching bond, grounding groups socially around the historical character of people and place, rooting peoples around the distinctive and often inherited preferences that create the comforts of identity, the particularities of home, the communal fulfillment of a place living and functioning at its most enriched best. And yet, culture can turn home into an unwelcome place, ties into the bonds of bondage, culture closing in on itself to protect the standards it has invented and preserved, a restrictive and resistant imprisoning notion, a place of unreasonable expectation and intolerant conformity… a verdict rather than an opportunity for connection and a rich, diverse and socially cohesive life for all its citizens.

The arts offer their emancipatory potential as they work ..with, in and through communities to help raise awareness about the lives of all our citizens and open minds to the possibilities of change. I have personally experienced the embodied and transformative impact of the arts for social change. In my graduate research at Concordia University, Montreal, I worked as a group therapist with older persons in residential housing in an Over 60 mental health programme for two years. I wrote an ethnodrama script, “Remember Me for Birds” based on data gathered in sessions and client stories and narratives and performed this research as a solo actor at universities and national conferences. My goal was to reflect the culture in a provocative script grounded in real life happenings in order to create a performance that might raise awareness about issues compromising individual freedom and autonomy for older persons living in low income supportive living housing.

One audience member who worked with older clients at the centre as an elder abuse researcher reflected in his feedback what he experienced as a cultural reality and an attitudinal shift.

“There is a paternalism with regard to “the elderly”. This often results in their autonomy being assumed to be less than it is or taken away against their will. I learned I am inappropriately detached from people. I came. I attended because I was curious and I am glad I came. I learned about others but it (the performance) taught me about myself.”

The book , Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change is an ambitious publishing project which has been launched by *The International Journal of The Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice IJCAIP, and is the second text in Creative Arts in Interdisciplinary Practice (CAIP) Research Series, Editor, Cheryl McLean, Associate Editor, Robert Kelly, to be published by Detselig Temeron Press, Calgary. The first volume illustrated the considerable breadth and scope of the research in this new and emerging field. Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change features informative and thought provoking articles describing applications of the creative arts in research within neighborhoods, villages and cities integrated in distinctive ways to help investigate, explore, articulate and communicate research findings while working actively within and beyond borders to foster community and cultural change. In this action oriented collection qualitative research and community based and participatory methods play a major role as well as other experiential approaches.

The articles in this 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 seeking to address the most fundamental of human needs, the need for a healthy and safe community 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 public demonstration, at a kitchen table, from inside a prison cell or to be experienced in the photographs of a community of women, street workers, recording the stories of their lives and dreams, on the perilous streets of the inner city.

Jan Selman, Professor, Department of Drama, University of Alberta, was the lead researcher on the project “Are We There Yet” a participatory play created by artists and health educators out of a sense of urgency about the need for more effective sexuality education for teens. The play was adapted, produced and evaluated in several Canadian centres. She writes about the power of performance in work for social change:

“In creating and using art for change, activist artists bring their aesthetic taste and expertise as well as their social and educational agenda to their projects. We believe that creating art about our world makes a difference as art seeks to touch people at their core.”

Other contributors express a similar sentiment and attest to the value of sharing and learning from human experience. In the article, “Four Poems for Four Lives, A Study of Four Ex-Prisoners through Poetic Inquiry”, Liz Day and John J. Guiney Yallop write, “We believe that all human experience is of value and that all human experience has something to teach us.”

In a photograph with a quote featured in this book by artist, "Merry Mag", a sex worker living and working in Portland Oregon, and a participant in a photovoice project led by Moushoula Capous- Desyllas, a social work educator at Portland State University, "Merry Mag" expresses an appeal for understanding. An image can been seen of a woman kneeling in front of a headstone, head lowered. She is blindfolded, her mouth taped, hands bound.

“It is a tribute to them (murdered sex workers) in honour of their memory and of my pain. When I look at this image of the tape over my mouth it’s like I couldn’t talk about it. I had to just go out there and turn tricks after finding out that my friends had just died.”

In this contemporary collection, we present compelling evidence that the arts not only matter today, but are essential for the very survival of our communities and the healthy future of all of our citizens. We also share in these accounts research and stories that show how the arts are empowering communities to act as they seek to discover creative solutions to address critical social challenges. The arts in action can uniquely provide expressive opportunities for individuals to communicate and transfer knowledge beyond borders, igniting communities in common purpose while offering creative ways for the marginalized to express their stories. The arts can reach out to our communities and open minds to truth and hearts to understanding. Here, in the many research accounts in this book, in what these stories teach us, you will find evidence for change. In each inspiring story of the arts in action hope lives and the creative opportunity for societal and cultural transformation can begin.

Contributor List, Leading Researchers Featured in Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change

There are over forty contributors to the book, "Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change", Editor Cheryl McLean, Associate Robert Kelly, published by Detselig Enterprises and among them are leading researchers working across disciplines for change.

About the Book

Excerpts

Table of Contents

Editors

Just a few of our excellent contributors
.....to the book
Creative Arts in Research for Community and Cultural Change




In the list below we have featured just a few of the contributors. Their varied backgrounds reflect the diversity of their interests in research and community action and their interdisciplinary approaches to the arts in research.

Jan Selman, Professor, Department of Drama, University of Alberta directs and facilitates many professional and community-based theatre projects. Much of her early theatre work was based with Catalyst Theatre where she was artistic director for its first eight years. Based in her practice, she co-wrote and edited the book, Popular Theatre in Political Culture: Britain and Canada in Focus with Tim Prentki. Recent publications are in Routledge’s Applied Theatre Reader, Canadian Theatre Review, and Adult Education Quarterly. A specialist in participatory theatre, recent work includes: co-facilitating Transforming Dangerous Spaces, which used theatre to explore coalition across difference in women’s activist communities, and leading the Are We There Yet? research program.

Valerie Triggs is a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. Her area of research focuses on exploring the ways in which arts based educational events extend classically scientific modes of research.

Rita L. Irwin is a Professor of Art Education and Associate Dean of Teacher Education in the Faculty of Education at The University of British Columbia. Although she may be best known for her work in developing a form of arts based educational research called A/r/tography, she is also well known for her leadership roles in professional organizations. Most notably, she is the current President of the International Society for Education through Art and serves on the Presidential Council of the World Alliance for Arts Education.

Ruth Beer is an Associate Professor and former Head of Visual Arts at Emily Carr Institute. She has exhibited her sculptures and photographs widely including solo exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Western Front, the Contemporary Art Gallery as well as other galleries throughout Canada, Japan, and the United States. Her practice centres around issues of consumer culture and workplace environment.

Stephanie Springgay is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on curriculum theory, relational art practices, gender and youth studies, embodiment, feminist pedagogy and justice-oriented education. In addition, as a multidisciplinary artist working with installation and video-based art, she investigates the relationship between artistic practices and methodologies of educational research. She is currently co-editing the book M/othering a Bodied Curriculum: Theories and Practices of Relational Teaching with Debra Freedman and Natalie Jolly; is the co-editor of Curriculum and the Cultural Body, Peter Lang (2007) with Debra Freedman; and the author of Body Knowledge and Curriculum: Pedagogies of touch in youth and visual culture, Peter Lang (2008). Her work has also appeared in such journals as Qualitative Inquiry, Studies in Art Education, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, and the Alberta Journal of Educational Research. Currently, Dr. Springgay is a co-investigator on a Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) research and creation grant. This is a large-scale study that explores community-based relational art practices in sites such as India, Argentina, Cape Breton Nova Scotia and Toronto. The study is an artistic inquiry into walking as a bodily way of knowing, as a political act, and as a form of corporeal public pedagogy. The study is situated to bring together a team of scholars and artists in the visual arts and education, bridging the gap between creative and interpretive disciplines, to examine the implications of walking as an aesthetic act.

Kit Grauer is Associate Professor of Art Education and Curriculum Studies at The University of British Columbia. She has been involved in National and International organizations in Art Education and presented and published widely in this area winning numerous awards for teaching and research.

Gu Xiong an associate Professor in the Department of Art History, Visual Art, and Theory at The University of British Columbia. As a multi-media artist he works with painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video, performance art, and installation. His work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the China National Museum of Fine Arts among many other museums and private collections. He has received significant critical recognition including reviews in international art magazines: Flash Art, Art in America, and The New York Times. His practice centres on hybrid identity creation arising from the integration of different cultural origins.

Carolina González Schlenker MD MPH came to the US as an exchange medical student and after three years returned to Mexico. She did an internship in general medicine at an urban hospital with the Mexican Ministry of Health in her home town of Tampico. She worked in community medicine in the highlands of Chiapas for two years in Tojolabal Mayan Indian communities training health promoters and practicing primary care. She was co-founder and first president of the Latino Health Organization in 1994. In Utah she obtained a masters in public health with a concentration in quality of care. In Wisconsin in 2000 she was active in community-based participatory research. She uses theatre to engage community members and activate capacities that protect the health of immigrants. She is currently a post doctoral fellow in health disparities at the Center for Women’s Health Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her main research interest is creating informational tools that can serve as a bridge between primary care providers and people´s experience of disease. She is married to Tom Schlenker, MD, MPH and has three sons.

Gloria E. Sarto, MD, PhD is a Professor in the University of Wisconsin, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and past Co-Director of the UW Center for Women’s Health Research and was the first woman to be appointed president of the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. Dr. Sarto has been active with several community programs and has been a local and national leader to increase awareness on health disparities. She was part of the editorial board of Unequal Treatment, a publication of the Institute of Medicine presenting evidence of the inequity that minorities face in health care settings. She is mentor and PI on an NIH funded T32: Health Disparities Research Scholars Program. Dr. Sarto serves on the Board of Directors for the National Center for Genome Resources. She is the recipient of the American Medical Women's Association Distinguished Career Award, the 2001 University of Wisconsin Medical Alumni Award and the 2004 YWCA Woman of Distinction Award.

B. Stephen Carpenter, II is Professor of Art Education at Penn State University. He is author/co-author of numerous scholarly articles that have appeared in journals such as Art Education, Ceramics: Art and Perception, Computers in the Schools, Educational Leadership, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, The Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education, The Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, The Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, The Journal of Visual Literacy, Studies in Art Education, and Visual Arts Research. He has also authored/co-authored numerous book chapters in art education, visual culture, and curriculum theory. In addition, he is co-author of Interdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Art in High School (2006), and co-editor of Curriculum for a Progressive, Provocative, Poetic, and Public Pedagogy (2006). His mixed media installations and performance artworks have been exhibited in regional, national, and international exhibitions. Carpenter was editor of Art Education, the journal of the National Art Education Association (2004-2006) and is co-editor of the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy [2] (2010-). His funded projects include the Texas Governor’s School in Arts and Humanities for Urban Leadership [3]; the Ensemble Computing Portal [4]; the TAMU Water Project [5]; and, the Glasscock Island Digital Humanities and Visual Culture Education and Research Island in Second Life Project [6]. Previously, he has held faculty positions at Texas A&M University (2005-2010), Virginia Commonwealth University (2002-2004), and Old Dominion University (1995-2001). Carpenter holds a B.F.A. degree in Visual Art from Slippery Rock University and M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees in Art Education from Penn State University.

Bryan O’Neil Boulanger is an assistant professor of environmental engineering in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University. Dr. Boulanger has performed research and served as a consultant on environmental and engineering issues pertaining to water and wastewater treatment since 2001. In recognition of his contributions to his field, Bryan was awarded a Bronze Medal for Commendable Service from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2006 and an EPA Mission Award from the Office of Pollution, Prevention, and Technology in 2007. Bryan’s research and writings have been published in Journals such as Environmental Science and Technology, Chemosphere, Journal of Environmental Management, Journal of Environmental Monitoring, and the Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Steroids & Hormonal Sciences and on peer-consultation panels for EPA. Bryan holds undergraduate and master’s of science degrees in Environmental Engineering from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Iowa.

Oscar J. Munoz’s professional and dedicated leadership has spanned for more than 15 years, as he has provided successful implementation and direction in various programs encouraging educational pursuits and benefiting humanitarian causes. Muñoz is Deputy Director of the Colonias Program for the Center for Housing and Urban Development at Texas A&M University. This program aims to improve the quality of life of the residents of impoverished rural and urban Hispanic communities. The newest project undertaken by the Colonias Program is the development of a training academy with a focus on professional development and promotora/community health worker training. The Texas State Department of Health Service certified curriculum is comprised of eight core competencies, cancer survivorship, and healthy exercise programs, and provides certified education for promotoras/ community health workers. Muñoz has previously served as Director of Continuing Education for Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas and as Associate Director for the Central Rio Grande Region Colonias Program.

Judith Marcuse, LL.D. (Hon.) is Artistic Producer, Judith Marcuse Projects, and Founder/Co-Director of The International Centre of Art for Social Change and Fellow, Centre for Dialogue is an Adjunct Professor, Simon Fraser University. Judith Marcuse has had a distinguished career as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, director and producer in work for dance, theatre, opera, television and film. Her commitment to the marriage of artistic excellence and social relevance and her passion to integrate art in community life is at the core of her work in the theatre, the lecture hall, behind and in front of the camera and in her writing. Among her many honours she has received Canada's two major choreographic awards, the Chalmers (1976) and the Cliford E. Lee (1978). In 2000 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Simon Fraser University. Richard Marcuse is a social anthropologist and Consulting Manager, Judith Marcuse Projects

John J. Guiney Yallop PhD is a parent, a partner, and a poet. After completing his doctoral studies where he wrote poetry to explore emotional landscapes, identities, and communities, John accepted an appointment to the School of Education at Acadia University.

Peter Mbago Wakholi BSc., BEd, M.Ed. is originally from Uganda, Peter migrated to Australia with his family in 1991. Before coming to Australia, he worked as a high school teacher in Uganda, Kenya and Zambia following his graduation from Makerere University in Uganda (1984). Peter currently works with the Education Department in Western Australia as a high school teacher and is pursuing a PhD through the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Murdoch University on “Negotiating Cultural Identity through the Arts”. Peter holds an M.Ed Research from Murdoch University. His master’s research project centred on ‘African Cultural Education: A dialogue with the African Migrant Youth in Western Australia’. He also holds a Graduate Certificate in Professional Learning and a B.Ed from Edith Cowan University; and a BSc from Makerere University in Uganda. Peter is the author of “African Cultural Education and the African Youth in Western Australia: Experimenting with the Ujamaa Circle” (Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag, 2008), as well as several refereed and magazine articles in the area of African cultural education. His research interests include migration and cultural identity – in particular the role of African cultural knowledge – and the use of arts-based approaches in strengthening the cultural identities of African youth. In addition, he is also a practising artist and a cultural education facilitator.

Peter Wright Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer in Arts Education and Research Methods, and Academic Chair of Research and Postgraduate Studies, School of Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia. He is an active researcher and works across the arts with a commitment to personal, social and cultural inquiry, development, education and expression. Peter’s research interests include teaching, learning and healing in, through, and with the Arts; Arts-informed approaches to research; Participatory Arts, Drama Education; Applied Theatre; Transformational learning; Teacher development in the Arts, and Playback Theatre. Recently Peter acted as an editor for a special themed issue of Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research on Performative Social Science, a reviewer for Qualitative Inquiry in Education, and the E-journal of UNESCO Observatory: Multi-Disciplinary Research in the Arts. Peter is a member of the International Arts Education Research Network (Australia Council for the Arts/UNESCO), and the UNESCO LEA (Links to Education and Art) International Network of Experts in Arts Education.

Todd J. Sojonky holds a Ph.D. from the Educational Psychology program at the University of Regina (Canada). He is a registered doctoral psychologist with extensive experience in marriage and family counselling rooted in a transpersonal and relational approach to healing. Todd is well known for his motivational presentations and workshops. He has extensive clinical experience in the mainstream healthcare system and with the First Nations people throughout Canada. He is a sessional lecturer at the University of Regina and operates a private practice in marriage and family therapy. He has recently released a new book: Sojonky, T. (2010) A self-study: Being a White Psychologist in an Indian World, Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.

Moshoula Capous Desyllas, PhD, is faculty member of the School of Social Work at Portland State University. She teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in anti-oppression, social justice and diversity, and human behavior in the social environment. Her interests include arts-based research methods, community-based participatory action research, community organizing and advocacy, social work with immigrants, trans-global migration issues, commercial sex work and intersecting oppressions. She is committed to facilitating community dialogue and deeper understanding about issues of diversity and social justice through art. Her passion lies in highlighting the voices of marginalized communities through the use of art as activism and empowerment. Beginning in August 2011, she will join the faculty of the Sociology Department as an Assistant Professor at California State University, Northridge.

Pam Patterson (PhD) has, for over 25 years, been active in the art and women’s communities. Her research, performance and teaching have focused on embodiment in art practice, the body in art, disability studies, women and gender studies, and feminist art education with publications in journals such as: Studies in Art Education, Resources for Feminist Research, and Matriart: A Canadian Feminist Art Journal. Her book, Enacting Learning: An Arts–Informed Inquiry for/with the Bay Area Artists for Women’s Art (BAAWA) was released fall 2010. She is currently Associate Scholar, and Director for the interdisciplinary arts program WIAprojects, for the Centre for Women’s Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Her current research project is examining, with a diverse team of students, advisors, artists, access specialists and learning strategists, the development of a position of “Creative Enabler” for arts educational institutions. Patterson also teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU) and the University of Toronto-Scarborough. As a performance and visual artist she was a founding member of FADO Performance and ARTIFACTS and has exhibited and performed internationally.

Heather McLeod Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education (art education) Memorial University, Newfoundland. The research for this paper stems from her doctoral work in Victoria, British Columbia as well as from teaching in St. John’s. Her experience in education is wide-ranging, involving work at various levels in the K-12 school system in diverse locales across Canada with multiple stakeholders. Her broad research interests include education through the arts; art and social justice; issues of culture and history; narrative approaches to learning, teaching and research; critical pedagogy; feminist analysis; pre-service teacher-education - identity construction and multi-genre scholarship She pursues an interpretive/critical research and pedagogical orientation. Hr current projects also include research about teacher self-presentation through dress.

Jill B. Jacoby PhD MS MSEL completed her doctorate in Leadership & Change from Antioch University. Her studies focused on environmental leadership and sustainability and her dissertation focused on the use of study circles with artists as a catalyst for environmental leadership and change. Jill also has a Masters degree in Water Resources from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Studies in Environmental Law from the Vermont Law School. She is currently an adjunct professor in Sustainable Development with the University of Wisconsin - Superior, an adjunct professor in Environmental Topics with the College of St. Scholastica (Duluth, MN) and an adjunct professor in Environmental Studies with Fairleigh Dickinson University (NJ). In 2002 she founded, and is the Executive Director of, Sweetwater Alliance, a non-profit organization with a mission to raise water literacy through the arts and science. Her current project is to build an artistically and ecologically designed water garden to treat stormwater runoff and educate the public about the values of wetlands.

Mary Harber-Iles—BA, BSW, MSW

Mary has worked in a variety of areas during her social work career during the last 24 years. She has supported children, youth and their families in the context of child welfare, clinical work around sexual abuse, healthy sexuality and children and youth with disabilities, parent support and youth addiction issues. She has worked primarily in the area of health promotion and prevention for addiction issues. During the last 10 years Mary has been teaching in the School of Social Work and Human Services at Thompson Rivers University. She has developed curriculum for a course certificate in the area of FASD/addiction at Thompson Rivers University and was recently involved in working with a First Nations Community around the area of addiction prevention supporting the community to develop action planning from a cultural context. In terms of using art as context for change, Mary has initiated a number of ―Re-constructing Barbie body image workshops for young women in the community, worked using art with youth with disabilities and is currently supporting the development of a youth theatre group for transitioning youth with FASD. She has also presented both at National and International conferences and has helped to initiate and sustain a community action group around FASD prevention and continues to support community advocacy.