Meeting with Dr. Gates was crucial to my understanding of what method would guide my research and to understand that my project and research in Apalachicola, Florida is a case study. I am bounded to the school and writing about what happens at the school. I may actually be engaged in an Ethnographic case study and will read more on this subject so that I have a firm understanding. Ethnography is a type of Qualitative research.
At this moment I am defining the population and who are the participants, who am I collecting data from?
The limitations of my study are many. As an Ethnographic study I will be viewed as an outsider, I can only report on what they tell me, I don't really know what is "real" and given that I am spending a week on the project, I am studying one episode in a lengthy project.
Here is the abstract from my Research project Proposal 1st draft:
My area of research focuses on the influence of the arts on the recovery of struggling, rural communities. More specifically, how are projects that facilitate change created and maintained? Through the examination of current and past programs, and the investigation of relevant issues, I hope to answer the question: How have community-based arts projects influenced the health and well being of a community?
Economic struggles and cyclical poverty are persistent problems that plague a broad portion of our society. The New Deal, a series of economic programs implemented by the United States government between 1933 and 1936(Kennedy & Larkin, 2009) is one historical example of the ways in which the arts worked to elevate community and society at large. With this in mind, community-based art projects involve a broad spectrum of the community and provide a concrete example of the importance of art and art education for the health and well being of society. Through the examination of current and past programs, and the investigation of issues relevant to the problem question, I am exploring; access to resources, the sustainability and efficacy of programs, as well as making cross-cultural comparisons and feel that this research is timely and important given the current state of our economy, the lack of funding for art in the public schools, and the limited access to the arts in rural and impoverished communities. My research will help to define how the arts can help struggling communities for the art education community.
Kennedy, R. G., & Larkin, D. (2009). When art worked: The new deal, art, and
democracy. New York: Rizzoli International Publications Inc.
Here is an excerpt from one of my interviews for the pilot study that gave me an opportunity to practice the interview process and make sure my questions made sense to the interviewee.
Interview with Liz Gottlieb, November 27, 2011
1.Do you believe that the arts can empower struggling communities? If so, what have you observed? What are your beliefs?
Liz: “ I think that at the very least, art can reinforce people's hope and at the most it can be a source of education and enlightenment like the Diego Rivera murals, he basically told society about the struggles of the workers or for example, the WPA teaching people about the poor in rural areas. I think art can go a long way in educating society but I think it can restore hope and turn struggles, transform struggles into a work of inspiration for communities.”
2.Do you perceive the arts as helping or healing individuals and society? If so, how? Personal examples?
Liz: “Arts in medicine and working with people in the hospital but for me, personally, I was a social worker in New York and I became disheartened as social services were being slashed, a real sense of hopelessness with trying to help people in poverty but then Bread and Roses, an organization that was on the floor above me, were working with art to approach the same issues. They were educating through the arts the state of our society and celebrating people who were struggling through art, photography. With art you can never lose. Of art working, it helps people who are working for social justice…and in participating it gives a sense of pride and is great for anyone in need of uplifting.”
3.Do you see art as a resource for social change?
Liz: “ Yes in that it is a way to inspire people who want to work for the social good and can be a source of enlightenment and education.”
4.How might a community write their own stories of identity?
Liz: “ There is a beautiful example of this French photographer who took pictures of people’s eyes in the poorest area of Rio, horrible condition, thousands of people on this mountain looking down on Rio, pictures of these eyes blown up huge and then pasted to the buildings, so the whole city could see and this brought huge media attention to a population that was outside the radar… Unseen America is the same idea, as a whole made an effort to do the same thing, people invisible from society, or seen negatively and misrepresented in the media, unseen America had people take their own pictures of themselves in their communities and brought them into the community. Art really educates people about other people and educates the larger community and helps fight bigotry and ignorance.”
Liz Gottlieb works for the United Auto Workers Labor Union and is currently compiling a book of portraits of people from a broad range of society and profession. It is a book of autobiographies that tells the story of the American worker. I interviewed her in an effort to gain the perspective of someone who understands social issues and who believes in art's transformative power for the individual and society. The questions I compiled are questions that I seek to answer as I engage in research on the subject of art and healing, art and society and the role of community-based art projects in the health and well being of a community. Her answers help me to see the universality of the issue.
(2006). E. Cohen (Ed.), Unseen America (pp. 3-200). Harper collins Publishers, Inc.: New York.
Bread and Roses Cultural Project
http://webarchives.cdlib.org/wayback.public/NYUL_ag_2/20090728171616/http://www.bread-and-roses.com/
