Covid-19 Anxiety: Location, Refuge and Loss, a research project led by Assistant Professor Pam Patterson (OCAD U), Professor Joanna Black (University of Manitoba) and Daniel Payne (Head, Reference & Instructional Services at OCAD U’s Dorothy H. Hoover Library) continues to accrue success and recognition. This project, which explores the generative potential of working in joyful, vulnerable, and committed communities of practice, sees researchers exploring mutually supportive pedagogies among themselves, with Gallery 1313, Toronto, and with OCADU and University of Manitoba students. As of April 2021, about 100 people have become involved in the project, many of them students.
Since June 2020, COVID-19 Anxiety has generated three OCADU Speaker Series. It has also completed a dedicated research creation website for Canada Council for the Arts Strategic Initiatives: Digital Futures and an OCADU LIbGuide resource entitled COVID Pedagogies: Tools, Content & Strategies. A culminating exhibition of the COVID-19 Anxiety creation research project with other collaborators, and two artists from Gallery 1313, Unpacking Pandemic Pondering: Strain, Stress and Subversion, opened online on April 6th, 2021. Featured artists/researchers include Janine Arellano, Angie Ma, Pam Patterson, Daniel Payne, Leena Raudvee, Mikael Sandblom, and Vicky Talwar. Student remote education projects resulting from student pedagogical research are also available on the LibGuide.
In April 2021, COVID-19 Anxiety was the subject of a feature article in the Winnipeg Free Press (see attached). The project has also recently been accepted to present at Kana Wain Dida Virtual International Gathering, a conference situated in Manitoba and slated for May 20-22, 2021. The conference is being organized by Kitatipithitamak Mithwayawin, who work alongside Indigenous and First Nations communities to develop culturally appropriate resources for managing the many challenges caused by the pandemic.
Moving forward, the OCAD research team members, Pam Patterson and Daniel Payne with undergraduate research assistant Angie Ma and graduate research assistant Emily Cadotte are presenting for We Connect and (Re)collect: A Symposium on Remote Practice-based Learning and have submitted a manuscript, “Pandemic Team Teaching: Stories of Collaborative Performativity” to “Reflections in Isolation as History in the Making” for the National Art Education Association (NAEA) journal, Art Education.