Abstract
In this paper I use arts-informed narrative reflection to share my experience as an art educator who relocated his at-risk elderly parents over 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) during COVID-19 lockdowns in order to bring them closer to my own home and under my care. The resulting narrative was co-constructed through an arts-based community effort that combines storytelling, folk music, and photography. The story begins with a sense of anxiety and uncertainty, yet concludes with positive reflections on one rural Appalachian community’s use of networking, creative problem solving, and arts-based documentation as a way to combat the isolating experience of departure during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, the arts-based methods further serve as a way to record a slice of local history that may have remained otherwise hidden (Kantawala, 2020) among other larger and more dire international narratives related to the coronavirus pandemic. Concluding discussions delve deeper into art’s power to capture something beyond the factual retelling of events (Barone, 2008) in ways that can be applied to any number of social settings, with specific implications for art educators and others interested in conducting arts-informed narrative inquiry.
Presenters
Jeffrey BroomeAssociate Professor, Director of Doctoral Program, Department of Art Education, Florida State University, Florida, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Arts-Informed Narrative Inquiry, Autoethnography, Coronavirus, Hidden Rural Histories
