Artists Mentoring Artists in the Telling of Difficult Lived Experiences

• In Event: Performing Mentorship as Reciprocal Relationship

Abstract

This paper shares experiences from a lead researcher in a field study exploring the the linkages of creative nurturing and performative mentorship as practiced by three artists. It aims to enhance our understanding of how to mentor community-engaged artists who work with communities with difficult lived experiences.
This study centred around an inquiry into “How might an experienced artist mentor another artist in the creation of a performance piece about difficult lived experiences”? the researcher interviewed three mentoring artists about their practices, philosophies and experiences when mentoring artists in their creative development. For instance, one collaborating artist in the study called herself “artist doula” to describe the mentoring that she does with artists. The figure of the doula served as a useful analogy to investigate the supportive practices deployed by the artist as she helped other artists from marginalized communities come into their own. The use of metaphor and analogy presents innovative ways of mentoring artists who work with difficult lived experience.
Following the interviews, the lead researcher engaged in a series of creative workshops with a mentoring artist, in order to create a performance piece generated from her own life experience as a refugee. Employing performative inquiry as a research method, collaborators attended to the experience that unfolds during performative activities, recognizing those moments that tug on one’s sleeve as action sites of learning (Fels, 2012). The presenter shares reflections from reflective journal they kept throughout their experience of the mentoring creative process.

Authors

• Lisa Ndejuru, The University of Toronto

• Farah Fancy, Simon Fraser University