Studio M*
A collaborative research creation lab intersecting arts, culture and healing.
History
Studio M* was co-founded in Calgary, AB, Canada, September 2017 by artists, researchers, teachers Barbara Bickel and R. Michael Fisher as a real and virtual space for creative inquiry, learning, unlearning, healing and communal gatherings and practices.
Since June 2021, Studio M* is located in the home space of Barbara & Michael in Nanaimo, British Columbia. We are grateful to be living as guests on the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nations and the unceeded territory of the Coast Salish peoples. We acknowledge the historical care for these lands and for the privilege of creating and living upon them.
Studio M* was originally located in the historic McHugh House from 2017 – 2020 – a Community Arts Hub of the Beltline Neighbourhood Association, with the onset of COVID it was re-located in Barbara & Michael’s home space in the Bridgeland Community of Calgary.
Years prior to this newest collaborative adventure they co-founded In Search of Fearlessness Centre & Research Institute (ISOF) in 1991, and in 1995 Barbara and Pamela Grof co-founded The Centre Gallery (1995-2001) that was housed in ISOF. Archives can be found in the Glenbow Museum.
Studio M* was grateful to operate during these years on the territory of the nations of Ktunaxa, Niitsítapi (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, Blackfoot), Stoney, Tsuu T’ina, Sarcee of Treaty 7 and the Metis Nation Region 3.
*photo credit for wood M image on fence by Jana Kurtana, 2024.
Co-Founders
Barbara A. Bickel and R. Michael Fisher have been co-creative life-partners since 1990. They combine their skills as artists, researchers, teachers, mentors, and speakers to facilitate healing for human recovery and liberation with respect for the Earth and all sentient beings. Their first communal project was co-founding the In Search of Fearlessness Center (ISOF) and community, which birthed The Centre Gallery and the ISOF Research Institute, which they directed respectively in Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 1991-1999. They obtained arts-based research doctorates in Education at The University of British Columbia, Barbara in Art Education and Michael in Curriculum and Instruction between 1999-2008. From 2008-2017 Barbara taught in the School of Fine Arts at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale, USA, and they co-founded the Center for Spiritual Inquiry and Integral Education where Michael served as director. Upon retirement from SIU, in 2017 they returned to Canada and co-founded Studio M*: A Research Creation Lab Intersecting Arts, Culture and Healing in Calgary. Studio M* moved with them to Nanaimo, British Columbia on Vancouver Island in 2021 where they now create and live.
Combined, they have written and/or edited more than a dozen books and over a hundred journal articles. They co-founded In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute, a Canadian publishing house in 1992, which to date has published six books and numerous monographs. Barbara is book series co-founder and former editorial board member of Studies in Arts-Based Educational Research. They have founded two open access journals respectively: Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal and The International Journal of Fear Studies. They engage editing as a service of compassionate curating.
They have collaborated as both visual and performance artists, while each have had independent professional multi-media-visual-performance art careers, exhibiting and performing widely. They engage art as social practice and are honoured to serve as mentors to artists, writers, scholars, teachers and caregivers. Learn more about their creative works at http://www.barbarabickel.ca, Barbara’s artist collective archive http://www.gestareartcollective.com, and Michael’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC01OHEXhSuxnyilmkV0f95 , the blog fearlessnessmovement.ning.com and LoveandFearsolutions.com
In 2023 Barbara and Michael co-authored the book Art-Care Practices for Restoring the Communal
Studio M* 