Eighteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This paper focuses on knowing through walking and conducting artistic research in unique and alternative settings to make connections with women’s experiences in global communities. A key focus is on how an alternative research practice can inform teaching and foster future research activities, particularly concerning issues of agency, identity, memory, and imagination. In this study, I share my extensive research on women artists who lived in and explored landscapes. I also share my unique process for engaging in artistic research using photography, drawing, and archival inquiry while actively engaging communities through long-distance walking. Methods for conducting research through a range of artistic practices will be shared. Stories, struggles, images, and visual interpretations of women’s experiences in the arts who engaged with their surroundings and strived to articulate their sense of place in their time will be shared. A summary of research regarding a connection to one’s place, memory, and personal identity are presented and promote a rich discussion on how an inquiry into the lives of contemporary women artists, along with artists from the past, can be relevant to the practice of art-making and research development, specifically in regards to issues of agency of identity and community action.