Big sky, deep roots : an aesthetic way of knowing the prairie landscape and the implications for conservation education

Through an inter-play between practicing prairie artists, their aesthetic way-of-knowing landscapes they inhabit, and the artwork they produce as a result, this research explored how an aesthetic pedagogic approach might enhance conservation education for a perishing prairie grassland. This was accomplished within ethno- and auto-ethnographical methods using phenomenological and arts-based approaches to capture a day-in-the-life of five artists and personal journal entries. A combination of narratives derived from semi-structured interviews, in-process and finished artwork and fieldnotes rounded out this body of research data. Purposefully, A/R/Tographic ideologies were embedded in the auto-ethnographical portion to investigate how my own Artist/Researcher/Teacher experiences have influenced my art- and meaning-making. From this analysis, it became evident that perhaps the artist’s stories and their art-making generate a more aesthetic pedagogical possibility for environmental education and communication.

Author dc:creator

• Deaville, Rhonda

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Leighton, Hilary

• A/R/Tography
• aesthetics
• arts-based research
• conservation education
• ethnography
• prairie landscape artists

Identifier URI

http://dx.doi.org/10.25316/IR-17074

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.viurrspace.ca/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Anull%3A10613%2F25264