In this paper, I share the results of this qualitative arts-based research study in the hopes of fostering dialogue among others. The two parallel lines of inquiry I returned to during that first year as an Assistant Professor were: 1) How could I support my students and together create a dialogic community that would foster a space and place for them to feel better equipped and empowered to enter into the practical and metaphorical conversation of teaching (Bakhtin, 1981), and 2) How could I find my way as an academic in this new geographic, physical, and relational territory where I, too felt uncertain and dislocated. As you will see, I turned to what I know best and what reassures me most—making art. Arts-based and theoretical research became one of the structures through which my preservice students and I reflected upon what we were experiencing, the relationship of teaching to art, and the connections of theory to practice. From those individual reflections we built a collective dialogue in the classroom.

I am a Mexican visual artist living in Montreal. A few years ago, I made the decision to leave what is known and familiar to me – my home, my family and my community in Mexico – in order to pursue doctoral studies in art education in Canada. The life experiences that came with this change of location have influenced my choice of research interests. Perhaps most salient among these is my ongoing doctoral research, which consists of a self-developed studio practice that focuses on the de-construction (Derrida, 1997) of my cultural identity. Having been a working artist for over ten years, I consider my studio practice the point of departure that leads to the formulation of further educational research questions. In other words, my studio is a site for exploration in which I test concepts and media, and in doing so, allow my intuition to take the lead. As a result, the (E) Motions project is a self-study in which I have explored the ways in which collage and digital media (photo and stop motion animation) may communicate the experience of belonging a not belonging to a place. The results of my self-study have illuminated the possibilities of using these media in order to develop community-based educational activities engaged with the exploration of cultural identity.

Through an exploration of the connections between identity of self and identity of place, and art’s potential to serve as a tool for sensitive inquiry, this project pushes past surface definitions of community-based art education and place-based education to create space for a place-conscious pedagogy. The author pulls together issues of community culture, student empowerment, and teacher education to illustrate how the local can be used to engage students in meaningful artmaking and inform processes of critical reflection.

This project explores the intersection of place based art education and visual culture art education. Both VCAE and PBAE view art education as a politically potent discipline. Each seeks to expand the scope of art education to better suit certain ideals. However, VCAE and PBAE prioritize different ideals, leading to divergent approaches. This research suggests that we focus on the overlaps between these two paradigms, rather than the divergences. An integrated approach may serve to strengthen art education, student empowerment, and environmental sustainability. This research is manifested in an ongoing participatory art project called Picturing Your Locale. Participants are asked to photographically respond to 30 prompts related to their local environment. Some of the images will be specifically local, some will be specifically personal, and still others will reflect mainstream visual culture. The aim of the project is to get people thinking about their local landscape. What do you notice on a daily basis? What is more obscure? How does the visual stimuli we pick out, effect our interpretation of the local culture?