art in a just recovery: impact
Reimagining Community Care
Did you take part in Art in a Just Recovery? We want to hear from you!
Do you want to share more about the story behind your art piece and your experience making art together? Do you have ideas about what could make Guelph more caring? You’re invited to join Amy Kipp for a one-on-one interview to contribute to the knowledge building part of Art in a Just Recovery! To sign up to take part, email Amy at akipp@uoguelph.ca.
WHy Knowledge building through art & Community?
We think that making art - and making it together - allows us to reflect more deeply on our experiences and imagine new possibilities. We also think that knowledge about community care must be created with community members, including those most affected by the pandemic.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY BUILDING COMMUNITY BASED KNOWLEDGE
Accompanying Art in a Just Recovery is a community-based research project exploring community care and collective artmaking. All participants of Art in a Just Recovery are invited to participate in this research after the mural is unveiled, but participation is completely voluntary and is not required.
WHO IS INVOLVED IN DESIGNING THIS PROJECT?
This research is a community-university partnership between Art Not Shame, Social Artist Melanie Schambach, The Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition, and University of Guelph researcher Amy Kipp. In order to build knowledge centred in community voices, we invited participants of Art in a Just Recovery to plan this research during 4 Knowledge Building Planning Sessions. During these sessions we determined our approach and guiding questions for the project. To learn more about these sessions, check out this summary.
WHAT DOES PARTICIPATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE BUILDING PROCESS INVOLVE?
We recognize that there are many ways of building knowledge, including storytelling and artmaking rooted in specific places, histories, and cultures. Working closely with participants we’ve designed a process that values and holds space for these different ways of knowing.
Participants of Art in a Just Recovery are invited to share their art and stories as a part of this research in different ways, including: 1) sharing the story behind their art and the process of creating it through follow-up interviews, 2) taking part in a post-workshop survey, and 3) by attending a final knowledge building session.
WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF BUILDING KNOWLEDGE THROUGH ART IN A JUST RECOVERY?
With your informed consent,¹ the knowledge created through this research will be used by Art Not Shame and the GNSC to inform future programs focused on the arts and community wellbeing, by Social Artist Mel Schambach to inform their arts practice, and PhD Student Amy Kipp for academic research.² It is our hope that we can share the knowledge we co-create to foster neighbourhood connections, a greater sense of safety, dignity, and belonging in the community of Guelph, and continue building collective practices centred on artmaking, care, and justice.
We’ll be sharing the knowledge we build through Art in a Just Recovery here, so keep checking back for more updates!
¹ We are applying principles of the FRIES model of consent as well as Community Research Ethics as part of our knowledge building processes.
² Amy Kipp’s PhD dissertation project, designed with community benefit at its core. This research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. It has been reviewed by the Research Ethics Board for compliance with federal guidelines for research involving human participants (REB# 22-12-001). If you have questions regarding your rights and welfare as a research participant in this study, please contact: Manager, Research Ethics; University of Guelph; reb@uoguelph.ca; (519) 824-4120 (ext. 56606).
