Liberating Diverse Creativities from the Field: Arts-Based Environmental Education Research
Presenters
Marna Hauk,
Institute for Earth Regenerative Studies & Prescott College
Amanda Kippen,
City of Watsonville
Amanda Leetch,
Prescott College
Mandisa Wood,
Napa Valley College
Abstract
This workshop brings liberating creativities to life, introducing EE practitioners and researchers to arts-based educational research and program design. Together we explore justice and empathy, surface and value diversity through multiple ways of knowing, and engage with arts-informed ways of researching. We introduce arts-based approaches by sharing affirmations, theories, resources, approaches, examples, and practices to support your discovery. The four motivations for this work involve building inclusion and multiple ways of knowing, developing a critical lens, leveraging creativity to build capacity for handling complexity (from the Tbilisi Declaration), and creating brave spaces for research and program design. Theories explored include environmental justice, feminist materialism, Gaian lens, and intersectionality and brave spaces, as well as the approaches of just sustainability arts, socially conscious/engaged art, STEAM, and art as a spiritual practice.