“In these short audio segments, artists Maggie Hutcheson, Emmy Pantin, Angola Murdoch and Cheryl L’Hirondelle describe their experiences in creating community-engaged arts projects. Topics discussed include how to approach collaborations with community members, the evolution of projects over time, and outcomes – both for participants and for themselves as arts practitioners.

Visit OAC’s website to listen to the full-length podcast episode, available through iTunes, Libsyn and other podcast services.

Maggie Hutcheson, community-engaged artist, educator and consultant

“In this short presentation, I’ll introduce some of the core principles of community-engaged art. I’ll also offer some useful tips on what to think about when planning a community-engaged project and suggest further resources for artists and institutions working in this field.” (Full transcript)

Emmy Pantin, Co-Director, Community Story Strategies

“For the Four Villages Community Health Centre, they saw the value of our arts practice as a tool to help break isolation, which is one of the social determinants of health.” (Full transcript)

Angola Murdoch, Founder and Artistic Director, Lookup Theatre, and circus artist

“A huge outcome for the participants is that they have gained this community where they know that they can come and be themselves. What the participants gain individually from [this program] is communication, teamwork, how to be positive, how to express themselves.” (Full transcript)

Cheryl l’Hirondelle, interdisciplinary artist, leader of “Why the Caged Bird Sings”

“What else I noticed is the power of having one’s own song. It’s kind of like having your own theme music for your life … it’s your own and no one can ever take that away from you.” (Full transcript)

Framing Community: A Community-Engaged Art Workbook
This workbook provides guidance on how to develop community-engaged arts projects, along with resources, references and funding sources to help get such projects off the ground. It also offers a variety of examples of artist-led projects that have taken place across the province.

This publication expands on an earlier workbook, Another Vital Link, originally published by OAC in 1998. For Framing Community, community-engaged artist, educator and consultant Maggie Hutcheson was commissioned to look at how the practice, principles and processes of community-engaged art have evolved in Ontario over the past 20 years.”

-from Ontario Arts Council