Studies in Art Education · 2011 · 17 citations · 10 references
ArtsCommunity ArtsMedia ArtsMedia StudiesMedia TheoryProduction StudiesArts-based Community DevelopmentCommunity Arts PartnershipsCommunity Arts PracticeMedia ProductionMedia RepresentationNew MediaArts ActivismArts For Social ChangeArts-based Community EngagementCommunity Arts ProgrammingCommunity Development Through The ArtsCommunity Empowerment Through ArtsCommunity Media ProductionYouth Media Production
Project TEEN Mirrors Of Motherhood (M.O.M.) is a community arts‑based media production initiative for teenage mothers. The study examined whether media production within a community organization can empower teenage girls in difficult circumstances to share their views, engage in community or policy discussions, and address challenges they face. The authors, art educators and arts‑based researchers, designed the project with Montreal community organization Elizabeth House; participants used digital photography, art, and video to reframe and discuss their lives, and the project disseminated messages through an exhibit, film screening, and a website. The article reports on a community activist arts‑based media production research project. See Figure 1.
This article reports on a community activist arts-based media production research project. Project TEEN Mirrors Of Motherhood (M.O.M. ), was designed by the authors, who are art educators and arts-based researchers, in collaboration with Elizabeth House, a Montreal community organization dedicated to meeting the needs of pregnant teenagers and young mothers. The purpose of the research was to examine how media production, offered in the context of a community organization, can empower teenage girls in difficult circumstances to share their views, to participate in community or policy discussions that affect them, and to define and solve some of the many challenges they face. Using digital photography, art, and video, the young mothers explored ways to re-frame, re-present, and discuss their own understanding of issues in their lives as well as re-consider their options. To disseminate their messages, the project produced an exhibit, a film screening, and a website, www.teenmom.ca. (See Figure 1.)
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