Exploring Mentorship in the Performative Space: A Literature Review

• In Event: Performing Mentorship as Reciprocal Relationship

Abstract

To date, there has been a gap in academic literature on mentorship specific to the performative space. Why might that be? Is there an opportunity to explore other worlds of mentorship and glean ideas to apply in arts education and performance? Or, is something novel required that addresses the needs of artists?
Conventional mentorship models do not fully reflect the organic style and creative nature of artistic practices. Central to reimagining mentorship in the arts is the notion of mentorship as performance, which may serve as a creative catalyst to empower and support social innovations in the arts.
This paper presents findings from a pioneering literature review outlining current principles, relationships, language and metaphors that inform understanding of mentorship as practised in community-engaged arts practices and arts education pedagogy.
What is currently happening in this space and how it is being executed? Where are there gaps and unmet needs? Benefits and drawbacks? The way of the artist, in creativity and alternative ways of thinking, is a skill that seems to be more needed in today’s world of education and later, the corporate world for which we are educating.
This literature review encompasses contemporary literature from mentorship theory, educational leadership, arts education, performance studies, and fine arts. First, it proposes an inquiry into the re-conceptualization of mentorship as practiced in different spaces of performance and research. Questions of sustainability, reciprocity, responsibility, vulnerability, and midwifing in the context of arts-based educational practice will be considered (Thomasson, 2017; Barone & Eisner, 1997). Fels and Stothers'(1996) etymological reading allows us to understand performance on the edge of chaos (Waldrop, 1992) where form and action are constantly being reconfigured and recreated. Performance is seen as a complex learning environment where the action of “undoing” and “not knowing” is embodied in practice (Frantzich and Fels, 2017).
Second, it explores a wide range of research into relevant issues of: 1) learning and teaching in community settings; 2) organizational structure and management in the arts and culture sector; 3) peer- to-peer mentorship (Kram, K & Isabella, 1985; Rodger & Tremblay, 2003; Grant-Vallone & Ensher, 2000); 4) other forms of mentorship in education and management (Crisp & Cruz, 2009, Eby, 1997; Kram & Isabella, 1985; Hunt & Michael, 1983, Murphy, 2012, Scandura, 1992).
Third, to envision artistic ways of knowledge exchange, the review explores emerging research around the production of artistic forms of knowledge (Hasebe-Ludt, Chambers, Leggo, 2009; Sameshima & Leggo, 2013; Snowber, 2016). Fourth, the review explores Augusto Boal’s (2008) work on the opportunities for transformation and learning within performance, as well as numerous arts-based education researchers (Barone & Eisner, 1997; Butterwick & Roy, 2016; Gallagher & Freeman, 2016).
Mentoring to maintain excellence, develop and grow potential is one way to address skills shortages in the arts. The impact of the arts as a driver of social change, awareness, good governance and social conscience is driven by courage to engage in social commentary and expression as artists.

Author

• Marlies Grindlay, Simon Fraser University