Artistic Mentoring As A Decolonizing Methodology

To expand the possibilities of “doing arts thinking” from a non-Eurocentric view, Artistic Mentoring as a Decolonizing Methodology: An Evolving Collaborative Painting Ethnography with Maya Artists Pedro Rafael González Chavajay and Paula Nicho Cúmez is grounded in Indigenous perspectives on arts practice, arts research, and art education. Mentored in painting for eighteen years by two Guatemalan Maya artists, Kryssi Staikidis, a North American painter and art education professor, uses both Indigenous and decolonizing methodologies, which involve respectful collaboration, and continuously reexamines her positions as student, artist, and ethnographer searching to redefine and transform the roles of the artist as mentor, historian/activist, ethnographer, and teacher. The primary purpose of the book is to illuminate the Maya artists as mentors, the collaborative and holistic processes underlying their painting, and the teaching and insights from their studios. These include Imagined Realism, a process excluding rendering from observation, and the fusion of pedagogy and curriculum into a holistic paradigm of decentralized teaching, negotiated curriculum, personal and cultural narrative as thematic content, and the surrounding visual culture and community as text. The Maya artist as cultural historian creates paintings as platforms of protest and vehicles of cultural transmission, for example, genocide witnessed in paintings as historical evidence. The mentored artist as ethnographer cedes the traditional ethnographic authority of the colonizing stance to the Indigenous expert as partner and mentor, and under this mentorship analyzes its possibilities as decolonizing arts-based qualitative inquiry. For the teacher, Maya world views broaden and integrate arts practice and arts research, inaugurating possibilities to transform arts education.

An Introductory Guide to Qualitative Research in Art Museums is a practice-based guide that is designed to introduce qualitative research to established and upcoming museum professionals and increase their confidence to conduct this type of research. Highlighting the work of researchers who are studying museums around the world, the book begins by explaining why there is a need for qualitative research in museums. Rowson Love and Randolph then go on to provide guidance, including theories and frameworks, on how to envision a qualitative research project that facilitates meaningful interpretation of visitor experiences. Chapters in the methodology section begin with descriptions of featured qualitative methodologies and will assist readers as they determine which are most appropriate for their projects and as they advocate for their research. The final section will prepare readers still further by demonstrating data analysis and reporting using the examples in the book. An Introductory Guide to Qualitative Research in Art Museums will help museum professionals and students engaged in the study of museums expand their repertoire to include qualitative methodologies and explain the methods needed to conduct, analyze, and report their qualitative research. It will be particularly useful to those with an interest in museum education, visitor studies and audience research, exhibition development, leadership, and management.

Visual Methods of Inquiry: Images as Research presents qualitative researchers in the social sciences with the benefits, applications, and forms of visual research methods. It includes a wide variety of images to illustrate the many uses of visual methods for social research. Contemporary visual culture theory and practice offers wide-ranging opportunities for methodological advancement in the social sciences. This book covers the basics of image use in visual research methods and explores how these methods can be used effectively in social science research by surveying the conditions of visual forms, materials, and concepts, and the ways these represent and influence social conditions, phenomena, beliefs, and actions. It examines the roles and processes of interpretation in visual research and discusses ethical considerations that arise when using visual research methods. Students of social science and the visual arts will find this book useful in expanding and improving their methods of inquiry. Artists and researchers already familiar with visual methods will find that this book clarifies the ways the visual works in various research contexts and provides helpful language to describe and explain those methods.

These stories from art educators highlight how art and visual culture can bridge learning with lived experience. Written by and for art educators from all backgrounds and contexts, this volume offers guidance for expanding students’ opportunities to critically examine current events, histories, and cultural assumptions in ways that are relevant and inclusive of all identities. Readers will learn how to use contemporary art and dialogue as tools to acknowledge and value the unique perspectives of each person. Authors from diverse settings offer topics, insights, resources, and research for centering voices and critical conversations in K–12, higher education, museums, and nontraditional classrooms. The book addresses such questions as: How can a teacher reflect on their own assumptions and biases before crafting lessons and discussion prompts?In what ways can contemporary art encourage dialogue in art learning spaces?What happens when current national issues intersect with the personal lives of students?How can teachers democratize the classroom so all students are represented?How can teachers demonstrate ways to critically examine information? Book Features: Offers insights from art educators in public, independent, museum, and community settings.Addresses the role of art teachers in responding to the current highly politicized educational climate.Critically examines concepts of practice, power, and vulnerability in teaching. Discusses issues of race, LGBTQ+ rights, family structures, current events, democratic values, and social change as they concern students.Provides examples of dialogue in various art learning spaces and contexts. Contributors include JaeHan Bae, Kathy J. Brown, Lauren Cross, William Estrada, Pamela Harris Lawton, Amy Pfeiler-Wunder, Natasha S. Reid, Kryssi Staikidis, and Injeong Yoon-Ramirez.

Turning Points invites readers to join in a dialogue about creating more responsive studio art pedagogies for all, following a global pandemic that forced art educators to do what many believed to be impossible: teach studio art online. Amidst this sudden shift, long-simmering social and political challenges pushed to the forefront, such as racial injustice, access to educational resources, economic inequality, and environmental degradation. As these issues compounded, art educators and art students navigated a radical shift in priorities—rethinking the materials, spaces, and relationships that form the foundation of the discipline. This collection of essays brings together international voices from across the field to share the lived experience of responsive teaching during the pandemic, and how we might rebuild a better educational ecosystem. Chapters address how new technologies, more inclusive spaces, and a heightened focus on relationships will reshape the studio art programs of the future. Book Features: Synthesizes diverse cultural viewpoints from both leaders and practitioners in the field of art education. Focuses on the impact of the pandemic and its aftermath on studio art teaching and learning.Connects art education to sociocultural world issues, student wellness, mentorship, equity, and racial inequality.Offers suggestions for how to move the field forward to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Contributors include David Bogen, Bill Gaskins, Michelle Grabner, Samuel Hoi, Steven Henry Madoff, Ernesto Pujol, Seph Rodney, Stacey Salazar, Kimberly Sheridan, Paul A. C. Sproll, Jessica Stockholder, Robert Storr, and Mick Wilson.

In an effort to challenge the ways in which colonial power relations and Eurocentric knowledges are reproduced in participatory research, this book explores whether and how it is possible to use arts-based methods for creating more horizontal and democratic research practices. In discussing both the transformative potential and limitations of arts-based methods, the book asks: What can arts-based methods contribute to decolonising participatory research and its processes and practices? The book takes part in ongoing debates related to the need to decolonise research, and investigates practical contributions of arts-based methods in the practice-led research domain. Further, it discusses the role of artistic research in depth, locating it in a decolonising context. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, design, fine arts, service design, social sciences and development studies.

This companion consists of chapters that focus on and bring forward critical theories and productive methodologies for Indigenous art history in North America. This book makes a major and original contribution to the fields of Indigenous visual arts, professional curatorial practice, graduate-level curriculum development, and academic research. The contributors expand, create, establish and define Indigenous theoretical and methodological approaches for the production, discussion, and writing of Indigenous art histories. Bringing together scholars, curators, and artists from across the intersecting fields of Indigenous art history, critical museology, cultural studies, and curatorial practice, the companion promotes the study and dissemination of Indigenous art and stimulates new conversations on such key areas as visual sovereignty and self-determination; resurgence and resilience; land-based, embodied, and nation-specific knowledges; epistemologies and ontologies; curatorial and museological methodologies; language; decolonization and Indigenization; and collaboration, consultation, and mentorship.

Decolonizing Arts-Based Methodologies: Researching the Africa Diaspora introduces Ancestorology, a new interdisciplinary research methodology that juxtaposes Western cultural productions of history with the lived experiences of the African Diaspora.