Who Is the Audience Anyway? Reflections on Arts Interventions to Bring Awareness to Sexual Violence

• In Event: 45.058 - Studying the Use of Arts-Based Tool Kits in Anti-Oppression Training to Address Campus-Based Sexual Violence

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives of this paper are two-fold. First, we briefly consider how the arts have been used in different areas related to sexual violence, including research, education, therapy and activism. Secondly, we explore the process of creating arts-based toolkits to address on-campus sexual violence. As a part of this work, we consider the audience of the related workshops and the diverse needs of participants during the toolkit sessions.

Theoretical Framework: We use a critical, emancipatory arts-based framework (Leavy, 2017) to situate our research. Arts-based approaches provide a way to unsettle and disrupt particular perspectives and ways of knowing through arts-creation and facilitation; while critical and emancipatory lenses offer a means to affect more targeted change in the lives of sexual assault survivors.

Methods/Data Sources: The data sources for this paper come out of a collaborative project consisting of arts-based researchers who have produced toolkits to address campus-based violence. Inspired by the work of Pithouse-Morgan and Samaras (2015), we use collaborative conversations and writings to reflect on both the successes and frustrations of attempting to map out a ‘how to’ for others based on our experiences. What, for example, would someone who has not produced textile art need to know in order to implement a workshop and what questions would guide discussions about sexual violence?

Findings: Addressing the first objective of this paper, we overviewed four arts-based interventions that were used to explore on-campus sexual violence at a Montreal University. From this evaluation, we found four key roles of arts interventions in combating rape culture and supporting survivors: healing, educating, protesting, and community-building. For victims of sexual violence and their communities, artistic modes of expression provide new ways of becoming whole, of learning about respect, forgiveness, justice, responsibility, and of developing an openness to growth and change. Findings include practical examples of what to include and not include in arts-based toolkits for addressing on campus sexual violence. Specifically, we found that the nature of the arts, ethics of using arts-based approaches and understanding the audience(s) when preparing toolkits are all key considerations that need to be front and center when preparing to offer toolkits for use.

Significance: We seek to increase understanding(s) about the benefits of sexual violence-related art interventions in empowering survivors, raising awareness about the complexity of sexual and gendered violence, bringing together communities, and drawing attention to potential solutions for change. Moving forward, we suggest that policy-makers and administrative leaders consider the value of artistic interventions when discussing campus reform, to collect stories, concerns and opinions in creative and transformative ways, and from vulnerable populations who might not feel that they have or can use other platforms to express themselves. Artistic interventions can help chisel away the structures of power and oppression that divide university communities, in their capacity to bring people together, to garner empathy, to inspire learning through affective modes of expression, and to call for social change in new ways.

Authors

• Mindy Roberta Carter, McGill University

• Milka Nyariro, McGill University

• Claudia Mitchell, McGill University

• Lori Beavis

• Chloe Krystyna Garcia, McGill University

• Maria Ezcurra

• Simone Berry Tissenbaum, McGill University