Michael offers an Artist-Thinker Talk: “Childhood and Mental Health” – about his four year journey as artist in residence and human resource consultant at Nanaimo Innovation Academy.
It’s with pride, joy, and sorrow that I have come to the end of my four year journey with a non-profit day care center, owned and operated by Keely Freeman, Nanaimo, BC, Canada. When I first moved with Barbara to Vancouver Is. and in Nanaimo to rent a house from friends, it was all so new to me. I am a prairie boy and to live near the ocean is hard to take in. Although, I went to grad school in Vancouver and we lived there for 9 years, it wasn’t as permanent as this latest move was in 2021. It was only a few days after moving in at the south end of Nanaimo, and me taking an exploratory walk down the old (near) abandoned railway tracks, that I discovered a quality day care center and began to talk to the Director and offer a proposal to do an artist residency—and, from there my life changed dramatically. I had found a ‘home’ to work and play in that was very productive and growth-full for me and for them as an organization. It was a great opportunity and I’m sure I’ll still be involved in Keely’s educational ventures in the future.
The video talk gives some of the details of my approach and findings from the four years. I literally could do a doctorate research project on all the data I collected in those years of creatively experimenting with children and programs and working to support staff, families and administration. It was a time to learn and teach and the organizational culture of a day care is a unique situation. I have come out of this experience more and more interested in a transdisciplinary inquiry into the mental health of childhood. What can we, as societies, do better? and What do we really need to pay attention to detect how we are failing to support a healthy childhood?
Michael
Studio M* 