Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, Art Education

Informed by community-based arts education, arts-based community development, and critical pedagogy, this research explores and articulates an evolving model of possibility for community pedagogy. Important and relevant for arts educators, arts administrators and other cultural workers, a community pedagogy utilizing the arts for social change offers entrances to reclamation of self, space and place leading to individual and/or communal agency and progressive social justice efforts. Ethnographic methods such as participant/observation, portraiture of community-based arts workers, arts-based research methods, and narrative writing, were equally utilized to yield highly self-reflexive education data constructions resulting in significant implications for art education. The research journey culminated in a participatory visual art exhibition/installation entitled, A Search for Community Pedagogy: Collage Reclamations of Space and Self. Artistic works created by the artist-educator-researcher-administrator including paintings, panels (visual journals) and mixed-media self-portraits developed visual metaphors which created understandings into relationships to pedagogical building blocks, assertion of voice, location as an activist, notions of community and even issues such as life and death. As the research progressed the artwork and narrative reflections served as signposts exposing new directions, clarifying emergent thinking and becoming part of data analysis. Mirroring its exploration, community pedagogy is gradually presented in the research journey in the form of a collage. As an initial foundational layer, a base of a sincere and well functioning egalitarian community must exist, no matter what the teaching/learning setting. Next the educator/learner-cultural worker must commit to ideas of facilitative leadership and to empowering students/colleagues/communities. Additional layers include fostering an educative experience that demands decision-making, encourages f (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2016, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

The purpose of this study is to explore audience engagement efforts by local arts organizations, Neos Dance Theatre and Summit Choral Society, to determine the most impactful strategies for building and sustaining audiences for New World Performance Laboratory. This thesis also discusses the definition of development and engagement strategies in the 21st century, relationship between arts and community, and motivations and barriers related to arts attendance in order to obtain a broader knowledge of audience engagement. The strategies learned from local arts organizations may inspire other arts organizations to develop more creative strategies and to enrich the arts in the Akron community.

Bachelor of Music, Capital University, 2022, Music

Theatre is an art form with the capacity to enact real change in our communities. Because of the wide array of topics theatre explores, it can help us to hold up a mirror to real life, critique and comment on proceedings within it, hold space for human emotion and therefore catharsis, and get viewers invested in a good story. This begs a responsibility for theatrical professionals to tie in aspects of community outreach to create a more enriching show, and harness the true power of this art form. In this project, I will be producing and directing Indecent, as well as creating opportunities for community outreach through talkbacks, service projects, and campus engagement opportunities. I will be creating a directorial concept, choosing actors, designing a rehearsal plan, finding costumes, set design elements, lighting, sound, and anything else needed to produce the show, all while organizing the opportunities for community engagement, complementary to the show's themes of LGBTQ+ rights and the history of Yiddish theatre. I have received permission also to conduct interviews and surveys of audience members directly after the show as well as check-ins to measure how the themes resonated with them, and later, how they have noticed them appear in their lives since, or any changes they have made. In the final paper in the execution semester, I will then explore these effects through the findings of this production and outreach components to demonstrate that theatre has the ability, and therefore responsibility to benefit others.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Art Education

Grounded in the context of a peace education program for teens, this narrative-based research study offers a story of initiating and sustaining relationships amid personal challenge during youth-driven community art engagement. Dialogue, storytelling, and collaborative artmaking as peacelearning were part of the participatory practice within this humanizing research. A theoretical framework drawn from the dialogism of Freire (1970/2002) shapes this study as well as an ethical stance of care and wholeness that contributes to the health and well-being of communities. Connection and belonging, co-learning and transformation were intertwined goals, an approach that this research study suggests challenged teens' personal vulnerability, critical self-reflection, deep listening, and multiple roles and ways of knowing. The research study portrays how the process of sharing stories and art that acknowledged participants' roots, struggles, and hopes as peacebuilders became foundations for growth. Findings from this study revealed that through the arts we can cultivate critical self-reflection, communication about the issues and challenges in our lives, interconnectedness and collective action. Additionally, this study illustrated that youth-driven approaches to community-engaged pedagogy and research exist on a continuum of youth leadership and adult collaboration. Also, sustainable youth-led initiatives and research depend on strong organizational support and adequate resources, mentorship, and community connections. Finally, a relational and asset-based approach to peacelearning through the arts can contribute to connected knowing, with potential for coalition building that supports positive change for individuals and communities.

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2017, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

In Youngstown, Ohio and the Mahoning Valley region, the arts community and local economic leaders of the city wanted to jumpstart innovative change that would improve the quality of life for residents, and develop solutions to attract new businesses and organizations to be a part of the community. Discussion among artists and economic leaders were made to inspire the arts and economic development sectors to work together. However, there was an equal number of doubts expressed about the possibilities of coordinated plans to improve the state of Youngstown's community by implementing art throughout the public spaces. The purpose of this research was to study perceptions about the arts in Youngstown, Ohio in order to learn more about the feasibility of public art in the community and to better understand how to implement an arts-focused plan to strengthen the economy of Youngstown, Ohio. This study was conducted to investigate arts practitioners' and consumers' perceptions about the arts community's potential economic impact on Youngstown. Also, the study considered these perceptions when analyzing the importance of incorporating public art to encourage economic growth and development.

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2016, Educational Leadership

City Township made a township-level decision to utilize arts events and programming to create community formation within its public. A non-profit entity entitled the Arts Planning Council was established to harness the aesthetic experience within the arts and to address the deep state cuts to the township budget. My aim was to understand the formation of a community based arts education program, how it contributes to the meaning and creation of community, how human connection is created through existential aesthetic experience, and how it can lend a feeling of communitas (V. Turner, 1969) among township members. Through the interpretive discourse and the methodology of hermeneutical phenomenology, I analyzed how the Arts Planning Council made meaning of the aesthetic experiences that occurred in their arts events and programming that result in community creation. For two years, I functioned as a participatory observer and conducted formal and informal interviews with Arts Planning Council board members, township trustees, and township administrators. I applied horizontalization (Moustakas, 1994) to cluster significant statements from their accounts into consistent themes of understanding. Using the emerging themes of the arts as joy, the arts as expression, the arts as connection, and the arts as a public good as generative guides for writing, I divided the study into sections that elaborate on the phenomenon of the aesthetic experiences within the arts events and programming and how those experiences lead to community creation. I concluded that the members of the Arts Planning Council and township trustees understand the receptive joy, expression, and connection derived from the liminal experience of the arts creation and participation. The resulting feeling of spontaneous communitas lends a desire to continue communitas into a normative state. Ultimately, desire engenders a joint aim to deliver the arts as an irreducible, social good. This idea interrupts (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2010, Art Education

The purpose of this dissertation study is to conduct an art-based, community action research study as a means (1) to support the recovery process of domestic violence survivors; (2) to produce social capital among members of the community to initiate civic discussions on the consequences of domestic violence; and (3) to investigate its implications for cultural policy as the outcomes of this study highlight the unique role of the arts in making a difference in people's lives and communities. The art works produced by the workshop participants of this study (i.e., domestic violence survivors) were exhibited in a professional gallery as a form of visual narrative that speaks for their wounded past and difficult journeys. The collected data strongly indicates that art can be an exceptionally powerful tool for communication and healing, when words and discussions fall short. Overall, this research investigates the instrumental functions of the arts as a means to produce social capital for personal well-being, social support, and social justice. The study was framed within action research methodology and the triangulation model in data sources, research methods, and theoretical lenses, while both quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed. The collected data were analyzed at three different levels: (1) Personal level (i.e., the art workshop participants: n=16), (2) Organizational level (i.e., the staff of the transitional housing facility and the gallery: n=6), and (3) Community level (i.e., the general audience who came to the exhibit: n=74).

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, American Culture Studies

This dissertation is an intervention into the sociocultural imaginaries surrounding New York City in the late 1960's to the early 1980's. Through the implementation of biographical, social art histories, textual and visual analyses, I bring to light the visual narratives created, directed, and administered for and by the immigrant communities of NYC's Lower East Side. Focusing on the alternative art scene, the dissertation discusses the critical role of the visual arts in the fight for community self-determination and voice. I achieve this by analyzing grassroots arts and culture initiatives spearheaded by the Puerto Rican community of Loisaida and student-based movements in Chinatown. To shed light onto the instrumental role of arts activism for communities, I delve into print media, public art, and architecture projects, demonstrating how the initiatives fostered a critical consciousness around communities' ethnic, racial, and cultural identities. From the arts and cultural collective Charas and their geodesic dome project which galvanized a consciousness around community and place, to the newsletter, The Quality of Life in Loisaida, which harnessed expression to unify residents under a mutual struggle, to the muralism movement in Chinatown in which artists inspired an awareness around Asian American identity and activism, to the publication, Bridge: The Magazine of Asians in America which fostered a diverse array of expressions, as the dissertation demonstrates, the arts were instrumental in developing strong, independent, and successful communities. Harnessing the productive, intellectual, and creative potential of themselves and their neighbors, the efforts put forth by these arts activists, highlight the seminal role of local arts and culture programing in transforming residents into activists and neighborhoods into communities.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Environmental Studies

Spring Break Sisters is a professional project led by Ohio University undergraduate students to provide a Spring Break Camp to Athens County girls aged 11-14. The inaugural camp ran from March 11th-15th, 2024, at ARTS/West. The camp themes were community, self-care, and empowerment. During the week, ten people participated in an educational nature walk, guest speakers, nature poetry, and the creation of 2 community-themed murals, now on display in the Athens Community Center. The camp was possible through a partnership with Athens, Arts, Parks, and Recreation and by a $5,000 experiential education award from the Center for Advising, Career, and Experiential Learning.

PHD, Kent State University, 2022, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration

This phenomenological study examined how students at a large, urban community college experienced being an artist, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also investigated the ways these students made meaning of their arts experiences. The research design was based upon the model outlined in Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (J.A. Smith et al., 2009). Data were drawn from interviews with a purposively selected sample of five students who had public performance or exhibiting experience in visual art, dance, music, or theater. The participants experienced emotions of happiness and joy in their arts practices, as well as a strong sense of satisfaction in their creative work. All of the students described elements of the psychological state of flow as a part of their artmaking. The participants' arts experiences during the pandemic were varied, and were influenced by the unique circumstances of their lives. They made various practical adaptations to continue their creative practices. The pandemic provided a reflective space, in which the participants considered their personal and artistic priorities. They reported a keen sense of loss over their isolation from others during the pandemic. However, fundamental aspects of their arts experiences remained unchanged during this time. The participants found meaning in their art as a form of expression, in its capacity to connect them with others, and in their love for their creative work. These findings yield implications for strengthening connections between two- and four-year arts programs, utilizing the arts' capacity for building community, and considering new approaches to collegiate arts education.

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2020, Public Administration

Any planner will tell you there is no such thing as a magic fix when building a great community, but in recent decades, cities around the world have turned to creative placemaking as a tool for urban revitalization, economic development, and community engagement. Many of these efforts have involved the creation of arts and cultural districts through the use of creative assets and community-led design. This study looks at Canton, OH as an example of how the arts can be an important driver for economic development and the revitalization of struggling downtowns.

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Leadership Studies, Xavier University, 2020, Leadership Studies and Human Resource Development

This case study explores the factors that contribute to and hinder institutionalizing community engaged arts programs (CEAP) based on a synthesis of various data sources from in-depth interviews with key stakeholders related to CEAP, publicly available documents such as CEAP programs' flyers, social media sites, and website, and the organization's internal income and expense allocation document. The findings reveal an organization that embraces collaborative decision-making—both internally and externally—to create CEAP and develop measures of success. The case organization also incorporated CEAP into its strategic plan, and mission and vision statements. To facilitate CEAP, community partnerships are important, but also is becoming a member of the community. This study provides implications for practices by revealing the necessity of every member of the staff, including artists, contributing to CEAP through presenting ideas and providing connections to the community.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Arts Administration, Education and Policy

This study explores the individual, sociocultural impacts of informal, community-based culturally relevant art education for Korean-American elementary students through a case study of an art class that the author taught at Korean Church of Columbus (KCC), a Korean protestant church in Columbus, Ohio, in Fall 2018. The study primarily focuses on investigating the potential impact of community-based culturally relevant art education in developing Korean-American elementary students' cultural competence and critical consciousness. It also explores the long-term impact of such education for their successful acculturation. Moreover, to consider the impact of this study beyond the horizons of the classroom at a macro-level, the author identifies the study's policy implications by situating the case study in the wider policy arena. In doing so, the author utilizes an analytical framework that brings together the discourses of culturally relevant education and social impact of the arts. The study finds that community-based culturally relevant art education helped Korean-American elementary students explore and increase the understanding of their unique hybrid self-identity as Korean, American, and Christian, which positively impacted their cultural competence. However, while students had a clear understanding of the social norm around diverse social identities and groups of people in society, they did not actively critique the social structure that validated it. Meanwhile, the study finds that the definition of “successful acculturation” for second-generation Korean-Americans aligned mostly with that of cultural competence. The author thus argues that culturally relevant art education, with adequate curriculum, pedagogy, and long-term engagement, is expected to contribute to students' successful acculturation. The study also highlights the social dynamics that were created within and outside the ethnic Korean church where the culturally relevant art curriculum was deliv (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Arts Policy and Administration

Through a case study on the Gahanna Area Arts Council (GAAC), an emerging local arts agency in central Ohio, this research seeks to better understand the challenges and successes faced by a local arts agency in its first public year. Using Wyzsomirski's triple bottom line and Tschirhart and Bielefeld's triangle of organizational foci for balancing as a theoretical framework, this organization is examined with qualitative data acquired through interviews with board members, participant observation, and document review. The study examines the history of local arts agencies within the broader arts funding structure of the United States and the organization within its specific community. Findings reaffirm the need for balance within the organization as well as the need for local arts agencies to understand and adapt to their communities in order to be successful.

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2019, Music

This thesis focuses on understanding how nonprofit arts programming can impact rural Appalachian communities. A case study of Stuart's Opera House in Nelsonville, Ohio was be conducted to detail how their educational and community outreach programs benefit its community's residents and participants. With limited research conducted about the impacts of arts programming in rural Appalachia (McGrath and Brennan 2011), this study will inform community leaders, artists, and nonprofit organizations the impact they can create in their community using the arts.

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2017, Theatre Arts-Arts Administration

Research has long supported the benefits of the arts, specifically to students in grades K-12. Although arts programs have been decreasing over the last decade, nonprofit organizations have created strong programs that enrich students in the arts and create opportunities for collaborations with the community. The Weill Institute of Music at Carnegie Hall developed the Link Up music education outreach program to provide a beneficial means of music education in collaboration with partner host organizations and schools and has proven to be highly effective.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2015, Leadership and Change

Many authors point to expanding disparities related to wealth and social benefits brought by globalization and the creative city movement while culture and creativity emerge as growing forces in urban placemaking and economic development. The phenomenon of cultural district formation in cities around the globe presents challenges and opportunities for leaders, planners, and managers. Emerging theory related to cultural districts suggests culture can serve to build horizontal relationships that bridge people and networks from different sectors and professions as well as across ethnicities, class, and interests. Research for this dissertation examined the formation of three urban cultural districts social and their respective organizational networks in different contexts. I employed a multiple case study approach to ask: How do horizontal networks form in the process of planning, organizing and/or ongoing management of cultural districts, and what kinds of benefits do those networks generate within their communities? Field research focused on districts in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Miami. This dissertation is positioned within ongoing discourse around the tension between form and function in the production of space (Lefebvre, 1974/1991) and within the dialectic of centralization and decentralization in urban planning and governance (Friedmann, 1971) characterized by the push for broad social equity and the pull of local control. Research found that strong horizontal networks characterized by dense and active grassroots leadership were present at the same time as relative community stability and higher levels of social and economic equity. Where horizontal networks were weak, social and economic tensions were higher. The research did not examine other potential factors and thus cannot ascertain whether strong networks resulted in greater stability and equity or whether stability and more equitable conditions brought on by other factors fostered the formation of stro (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Art Education

This research employs American freeform role-playing games as a media for participatory arts-based inquiry into the relationships and perspectives of professional and pre-service art educators. The role-played performances and participatory discourse re-imagine relationships within a collaboratively imagined educational community that parallel ones from the professional lives of art educators, such as those between school administrators, staff, teachers, students, and parents. Participants use the roles, relationships, and settings they construct to explore themes and situations that they identify as being present in educational communities. These situations represent points of intersection between members of an educational community, such as parent-teacher conferences, community advocacy meetings, or school field trips. The data from each experience takes the form of personal reflections, participant-created artifacts, and communal discourse. By assuming various roles and reflecting upon them, participants gain access to experiences and points of view that provoke reflection, develop leadership capabilities, and enhance their capacity for affecting change within an educational setting.

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2014, Leadership and Change

In Making Space for Dying: Portraits of Living with Dying, I describe the everyday lived experience of dying and the care culture within freestanding, community-based, end-of-life residences (CBEOLR) utilizing portraiture and arts-based research. I craft four case studies into "portraits," based on interviews, on-site visits, up-close observation, and field notes. In the person-centered portraits, I reveal the inner landscape of two terminally ill women, with data represented in poetry. In the place-centered portraits, I "map" the social topography of two CBEOLRs to illustrate how lives and care of the dying are emplaced, from the perspectives of community leaders, residence staff, volunteers, family members, and residents, with data presented as aesthetic (storied) narrative. Collage and photographs further enhance the text. Little has been written about the meaning of home and the centrality of a home-like environment in the healthcare milieu, specifically in the context of the end-of-life care setting. My research helps to fill a gap in understanding care culture in the freestanding CBEOLR, a care-setting genre rarely examined in the literature. Additionally, my study develops the notion of a "good place to die" and introduces the Home for the Dying, a CBEOLR model unique to New York State. Lastly, building on the literature on liminality, and informed by clinical practice as an oncology social worker, my study specifically highlights the terminal stage of cancer and introduces the concept terminal liminality, characterized by descent. Two broad dimensions emerged: Nesting-in-Being and Nesting-in-Place. Together, these dimensions created a framework for exploring care culture and ways of working with existential suffering. The bird's nest, as a utilitarian though temporal structure, provided an elegant metaphor for the special end-of-life residence. Three linked sub-themes related to care culture emerged, Nest of Simple Things (meaning making), Nest of Belonging (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Art Education

This study was designed with a desire to learn what happens when student artists step away from the traditional practice of self-expression and become facilitators of communication and catalysts of change in communities. How does such an experience influence their civic learning and what new pedagogical insights can be gained for fostering engaged citizen artists? This arts-based action research study was conducted through the vehicle of a newly designed community engaged arts course called the Citizen Artist Dine and Dialogue Initiative at Ohio State University. The course involved an intensive partnership between undergraduate students in the arts and youth artists from a local community arts organization called Transit Arts. Our process involved hosting a community breakfast dialogue series where the insights gained allowed us to create a culminating site-specific final project that was responsive to community concerns. All of this was driven by an interest in exploring the intersecting practices of arts and dialogue in civic engagement efforts. The conceptual framework for this study was informed by critical dialogue scholars Mikhail Bakhtin and Paulo Freire, as well as art historian Grant Kester who conceived the dialogical aesthetic. It also relied upon feminist scholars Nel Noddings, Carol Gilligan, and Megan Boler, who assert the ethic of care, a theoretical concept often cited in the growing body of civic engagement and civic learning scholarship that this study also references. In part, this study was a response to the numerous university arts educators and scholars in the broader field of education who have been calling for changes in arts education. There is a growing demand for students to be given a broader vision for a life in the arts so that they may be properly armed to take on the role of bridge builders and catalysts of change in communities. Findings from this study revealed that the lack of prior civic learning that is common for many st (open full item for complete abstract)