OUTSIDE THE FRAME

In my most recent practices as both a Therapeutic Arts Practitioner and Creativity Coach / Facilitator I utilize the visual image in different ways, as a Therapeutic Arts Practitioner the visual image is vehicle for creative wellness and as a Creativity Coach / Facilitator the visual image is used to facilitate personal growth and development. For this post however, I am just going to concentrate on my practice as a Creativity Coach / Facilitator and return to my practice as a Therapeutic Arts Practitioner in a future post.
 
My new practice as a Creativity Coach / Facilitator has not happened over night. Yes, I have done my coach training and have received my Certified Coach Practitioner and Certified Flourishing Creativity Coach certificates, as well as other professional development training related to coaching. In so many ways, my practice as a Creativity Coach / Facilitator is already situated outside of the “traditional coaching practices”. This is very much a result of my formal studies in the arts, such as my Certificate in Photography, Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Education (Visual Arts Specialist) degree. Even during my studies for my Master of Education in Adult Education, I explored visual literacy and arts based learning. Obviously all of these credentials have provided me with not just a foundation, but whole framework for knowing about and working with images, as well as how to work with people within different learning and development contexts.

​It is not just my earned credentials, but also the twenty plus years of designing, facilitating and managing arts based / arts infused learning programs for a diverse range of learners that has  provided me with the practical experiences to move into and engage in an arts based coaching practice. In many ways I have been working for so long outside of the frame of the “traditional” that arts based coaching is a natural progression. This is not to say that the arts based coaching practice I am engaged in is an easy one. I have to remind myself that I am not doing art education in this new practice, but instead providing a space for present and future clients to discover their creative strengths using visual images and photography as the primary vehicle.

​This practical experience, along with my credentials that has led me to the development of the Creative Learning Design Framework. The Creative Learning Design Framework is the underlying framework for the services I presently offer as a Creativity Coach / Facilitator such as the; Creative Strengths Recognition Process, Drawing Connections Process and Community Arts Facilitation. The Creative Learning Design Framework is an arts based / arts infused learning design process comprised of three components, Visual / Creative Knowing, Visual / Creative Connections and Visual / Creative Effects. On the surface, this framework may seem simplistic, but this framework has emerged as a result of an interdisciplinary mashup that has really been in development over the past ten years.
 

​The Creative Learning Design Framework really had it start In 2014, I was hired as the Creative Process Facilitator for the Creative Collaborative Communities Initiative, which was led by the Canadian Mental Health Association - Halifax Dartmouth Branch. My primary role within this initiative  was to design and facilitate a creative process that could function as a vehicle for bringing as many mental health stakeholders together to create a community of practice. This community of practice would then establish a more person centred mental health service in the community. To facilitate this I created the Creative Communities Engagement Process. The Creative Communities Engagement Process was comprised of three components. VISUAL KNOWING: Community collaboration assessment , VISUAL CONNECTIONS: Co – design of a Community of Practice and VISUAL EFFECTS: Future impact of a Community of Practice for those with lived experience.

​Ten years later in 2024 the Creative Communities Engagement Process has evolved into and has been renamed the Creative Learning Design Framework. Like the Creative Communities Engagement Process, the Creative Learning Design Framework came about through an interdisciplinary mashup. The Visual / Creative Knowing component derives from my studies and experiences in the visual arts, art education, design thinking, positive psychology and even borrows from my newest practice as a Therapeutic Arts Practitioner. The Visual / Creative Connections component comes from studies and experiences in adult educations, non - profit sector management, the community of practice model and other learning organization models. The Visual / Creative Effects component utilizes theories and methods from arts - based evaluation, prior learning assessment and recognition processes, appreciative inquiry and critical theory. Each component, becomes a framework in itself. This ever evolving framework will now become the stage on which I engage in my practice as an arts based Creativity Coach / Facilitator.