Treks and Collage Portraiture - Place-based Expression and Community Building: A Conversation about Two Arts-based Methods in Research, Pedagogy, Studio Art, and Community Practice

Workshop Presentation
Paula Gerstenblatt,  Jan Piribeck  

The purpose of this workshop is to introduce two combined arts-based methods; walking art and collage portraiture, as a way to experience and express social space, represent individual and collective narratives, and build community. In using these arts-based methods, researchers, artist/scholars, and participants collaborate, expanding the diversity of voices in creating and co-constructing knowledge. The co-facilitators have used these methods to address critical and complex social and political issues. They will give an overview of trekking and collage portraiture using examples from their work in Maine and Greenland, and the application of these methods in pedagogy, research, studio art, and community practice. After the presentation there will be an opportunity for a conversation and sharing experiences, ideas, and possibilities for applying these methods. Stories are the essence of the human experience; therefore, the more versatile and innovative research becomes in representing lived experience and complex social phenomena, the stronger our position to facilitate dialog and interventions that further a more just, inclusive, and responsive society.