W W E L C O M E alain barker, guest editor, faculty indiana university jacobs school of music Welcome to this edition of ENGAGE! in which we explore the power of the arts in our communities through an inspiring and diverse set of articles written by practitioners, administrators, research- ers, and teachers from different parts of the world. The arts play a significant role in reconnecting us to each other, building empathy, and restoring balance and justice. They have a unique way of navigating communal and cultural spaces. The arts open paths that help us find common ground, expand understanding, enhance diplomacy, and encourage shared knowledge. At its core, art enables us to slow down, opening opportunities to consider new perspectives. We invite you to stay with these articles for a while, to take them in at a pace that helps you to switch modes and savor their implications. Included in this issue is Eric Booth’s A New Framework for Understanding the Field of Artists Who Work in Community and Education Settings, an excellent proposal by one of the country’s lead- ers in community arts engagement. Booth recog- nizes the impact of the large workforce of teaching artists in the U.S. and around the world. Through his seven (plus one) Purpose Threads, he focuses on key elements that serve to empower artists who have a passion and commitment to their commu- nities. Included are community-based examples of organizations that employ teaching artists to achieve their goals, and suggestions on how to evaluate each Purpose. Booth was named in the “Top 50 Most Powerful and Influential Leaders in the Nonprofit Arts (USA) for 2015” by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF). For his new framework, he draws from his experiences at the Juilliard School, Stanford University, NYU, Tan- glewood, twenty years of leadership at the Kenne- dy Center and, most recently, the Lincoln Center Education Teaching Artist Development Labs. Learning Informally: A Case for Arts in Vocation- al Education and Training in Uganda, Maxwell Openjuru Ladaah, George Ladaah Openjuru, Kathy Sanford, Bruno de Oliveira Jayme, and David Monk, introduce a case for holistic learning by harnessing the potential of the informal creative arts sector. As a way of bypassing entrenched biases that still exist in formal neoliberal education practices, the research reveals enormous potential in youth-led commu- nity arts vocational training. The paper argues that “including arts in education is integral to the trans- formed approach to learning and livelihoods needed for dynamic communities capable of adapting and flourishing.” This is especially important to consider as the government of Uganda embarks on its Vision 2040, designed to address challenges in the educa- tion system. The location of this research is Gulu, a vibrant Ugandan city going through a period of transition and transformation following thirty years of civil war. Serving Those Who Have Served: Creative Arts for Veterans describes the healing power of the arts through a partnership that was developed by Lau- ren Daugherty, Arts-based Wellness Experiences Manager and art therapist at the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, and Todd Burkhardt, Director of Campus Partnerships at the IU Center for Rural Engagement. The project had particular significance for Burkhardt who recently transitioned from almost 30 years of active duty in the US military and was struggling with a sense of alienation in his civilian life. By participating in an arts-based wellness experience at the Eskenazi Mu- seum, Burkhardt realized how immensely valuable such a program would be for other veterans who were struggling in similar ways. The initiative devel- oped collaboratively with Daugherty offers therapeu- tically informed arts-based activity to veterans and their families across the State of Indiana, promoting ENGAGE! | c r e at i v e a rts 4 W E L C O M E general health and wellbeing. It’s an important outlet for veterans to “learn coping skills when dealing with trauma from the past alongside current stressors in their life.” Why Cultural Diplomacy is More Relevant – And More Challenging – Than Ever is an illuminating piece by William Harvey and Fernanda Villalvazo, two respected violinists who are founders of cultural diplomacy organizations. Harvey is concertmaster of Mexico’s Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. His career includes four years of teaching and performance at Afghanistan National Institute of Music. As found- er of the international not-for-profit, Cultures in Harmony, he has extensive experience in cultural development and diplomacy through the creative arts. Villalvazo’s career follows a similar path with training at some of the finest conservatories in the world and an awakening to the power of music as a vehicle for cultural connection. Her organization, Péepem Art Association, promotes intercultural ex- change through music and art. Together, the work of these two visionaries connects musicians from North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Their explorations take them to remote locations, including the Sierra Tarahumara mountains of northern Mexico. Re- sponding to the multiple challenges we’re currently faced with, they suggest that “no single discipline can claim to solve these problems, but cultural diploma- cy does attempt to alleviate them by affirming the connections that reminds us all of our membership in one human family.” Measuring Impact: A Collaborative Communi- ty Project to Measure Peace Building, written by Johnna Belkiewitz, Jessica Flores, Jocelyne Hernan- dez, Alex Prentice, Rachel Smith, Dountonia Batts, and Victoria G. Wilburn, focuses on one geographic location, Indianapolis; one not-for-profit, the Peace Learning Center; and a uniquely collaborative part- nership with Indiana University occupational ther- apy doctoral students. The Center works to promote peace through educational and advocacy programs, including equity learning, restorative practices, social emotional learning, and family learning. The semester-long project, involving a group of five re- searchers from IU, established implementable tools that measure the impact of the Center’s efforts in the Indianapolis community. As a result, the Center was provided both “qualitative and quantitative data about perceived safety, violence, and peace from youth and parents in the communities that the orga- nization serves.” In Using Art to Undermine Epistemic Injustice in DBT Research, collaborative artmaking is used as a strategy to disrupt the power relationship between researchers and research participants. Elizabeth Bailey, describes the distortions of perception within shared literature about dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Her study approaches the problem through arts-based research (ABR), a process in which knowl- edge is “created and physicalized through the collab- orative construction of work and the roles that partic- ipants embody.” The view assembled by researchers is consequently reframed by insights gained through collaborative, participatory artmaking. As many communities gentrify, they are often stripped of their cultural and social history. Storytell- ing to Preserve a Community’s History, by Des- mond L. Kemp, Latosha Rowley, and Stacia Murphy, describes a program led by five graduate students at IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University – Indianapolis) who were invited to help mitigate this problem through a collaborative, community-based participatory research project with the Harrison Center for the Arts near Indianapolis’ Martindale Brightwood neighborhood. Mentored by CRISP, The Center for Research on Inclusion and Social Policy at IUPUI, the group set about engaging with com- munity members to capture stories, memories, and reflections about the area’s history, helping create “a new reality for future generations.” Central to the research was CBPR: Community-Based Participatory Research, a method that involves the community as research study partners rather than just subjects. This approach enabled the researchers to foreground the community’s culture, revealing multiple ways to appreciate ‘histories’ of place and identity. One significant takeaway from the experience was a sug- gestion by the researchers that CBPR could be used 5 VO L . 4 , I S S U E 1 more widely in research, given that it is both impactful and beneficial while maintaining a community’s culture. With the rapid expansion of online conversations during the pandemic, the final article in this issue of ENGAGE! moves away from the arts and tracks how regular Zoom sessions can bring people together in surpris- ingly meaningful ways. Testimonios of (In)Justice and Communal Spaces: Four Latinas in their First Year of Teaching, written by IUPUI associate professor Teresa Sosa, follows the lives of four Latinas as they begin their first year of teaching in elemen- tary schools. Central to the weekly gatherings on Zoom is a commitment to communal mentoring and a recog- nition of Latina womanist epistemol- ogy. The study ultimately becomes a call to expand collective mentoring and support, “making a case for how these types of communal spaces are necessary across various institutions and spaces for Latinas." At a time when Russia’s war on Ukraine has displaced millions, when the pandemic has shown how vulner- able and tenuous our lives are, and with a growing alarm about a sus- tainable planet, this month’s issue of ENGAGE! reminds me of the centrali- ty of our shared humanity. Within our lives, artmaking is a powerful agent of meaningful exchange and can provide the catalyst needed to solve major challenges. It can illuminate diver- sity in ways that are empathetic and transformational. As mentioned in the Harvey-Villalvazo article on cultural diplomacy, one can only hope that art will continue to play a vital role in inspiring “all eight billion residents of this planet to see themselves in the other.” Designer nick asbell IUPUI Office of community engagement staff liz m. terry IUPUI A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S 6 Online journal development ted polley IUPUI Associate editors william b. crow Lehigh University carolyn gentle-genitty Indiana University jim grim IUPUI rita hodges University of Pennsylvania natasha howard Morehouse College terri jett Butler University brendan maxcy IUPUI carol mullen Virginia Tech mary price Forum on Education Abroad carol rogers IUPUI javiette vashan samuel Univeristy of Tennessee, Knoxville sarah stanlick Worcester Polytechnic Institute ellen szarleta IU, Northwest laura weaver Community-Engaged Alliance Editors khaula murtada IUPUI andrea copeland IUPUI