David LeRue

6.19 Theorizing Painting through International Collaboration: Reflections on Research and Practice Between Canada and Pakistan (Paper) – virtual

David LeRue – Concordia University, Montreal, Canada – virtual

Abstract:

In this presentation, two art educators working between Canada and Pakistan reflect on the development of a model for painting-as-research and their thinking through place-based painting and community practices. The authors were put in touch through their responses to an open call for book chapters, and while initially tasked with writing individual chapters that would be bridged with a dual conversation, the authors decided that their overlaps in practice necessitated further collaboration which led to three jointly authored contributions. The process invited us to explore the collective and unexpected commonalities of our interdisciplinary approaches as authors, painters, and educators, despite having never met in real life working a world apart. This presentation elaborates on our identification with the medium of painting, examine the intersections of processes and material logic to develop a framework for painters, students and academics in context to arts-based research. We elaborate on how painting contributes to knowledge and review literature to understand what painters really do in their methods and approaches to image making. The second part of the presentation looks at the relevance of space and place to creative practices. We draw on examples from one co-author’s arts-based research approach to landscape painting and our respective community-based art education practices in Canada and Pakistan to develop a dialectical understanding of the personal and the community. We conclude with a discussion on the pedagogical and research benefits of making in and with the place.

8.16 Community/University Partnerships in Art Education: A Canadian Perspective (Paper)

David LeRue – Concordia University, Montreal, Canada – virtual

Peter Vietgen – Brock University, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada

Abstract:

The relationships between community-based art education organizations and academic institutions are often mutually beneficial, but pose a number of challenges given their differing priorities, timelines, and resources. Nevertheless, as universities internationally take up community engagement to meet institutional goals of social engagement, critical reflections are needed about how best to sustain these partnerships. In this presentation, two art education professors from Canada discuss their projects that bridge academia and community, with one author holding longstanding teaching and administrative positions within a community art school in Montreal, and the other with a focus on school and museum collaborations, who is a former art consultant with the Toronto District School Board. We will begin with a brief discussion of our approach to community engagement, followed by sharing projects we have completed from our respective positions. We will close with offering our perspectives on how academia-community relationships can be more reciprocal.