Brief Background: Directed by Dr. Kathy Browning, Faculty of Education, Laurentian University, this project interviewed 14 Indigenous, Francophone, and Anglophone artists in Greater Sudbury and Manitoulin Island about their art to support the new Ontario Ministry of Education: The Arts Guidelines, particularly Visual Arts. Artists were interviewed and videotaped in partnership with the Director of the Laurentian University Film Studio Dr. Hoi Cheu. Ten videos received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Education through the Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research (KNAER) with the University of Toronto and four videos from Laurentian University Research Fund (LURF). These fourteen videos are distributed to locations and available on-line for knowledge mobilization and information access.
Knowledge Mobilization Activities: Knowledge mobilization is inherent to this project, as it involves the creation and distribution of a needed resource. Copies of each of the 14 videos can be streamed from the Laurentian University web site or accessed through links. The URL is http://www3.laurentian.ca/visual_artists/ Fourteen printable Teachers Facilitation Guides are also available from this site. The DVDs of artists' work are available through the School of Education Curriculum Resource Centre and the Desmarais Library, Laurentian University, the OISE/UT Library, numerous other university libraries across Canada, and Watmedia for future teachers of Visual Arts and other subject disciplines in pre-service B. Ed. degrees as well as other faculty, staff, and students at universities, colleges, elementary and secondary schools, and the public in general. These videos are the start of a much larger and rich project. This video series has received the Curriculum Services Canada Seal of Approval (2013) and the Canadian Network for Innovation in Education, Excellence and Innovation in the Integration of Technology in the K – 12 Classroom award (2014).