Dr. Rita Irwin’s work is transforming how students, teachers and artists participate in art education and learning more broadly, while jointly developing projects that mobilize their whole person and broaden their way of seeing and being into the world. Enabled by six SSHRC grants totalling $824,665 since 1993, Dr. Irwin’s a/r/tography approach intertwines art-making, research and teaching to bring curriculum to life by using arts to inquire into the meaning of the world. Initially focused on the experience of students, her program of research has evolved to include teachers, teacher candidates and contemporary artists, challenging accepted definitions of what it means to make art and be an artist.
Her original approach to research has earned Dr. Irwin hundreds of citations from the international communities of curriculum studies, art-based inquiry and teacher education, as well as numerous accolades including the Eisner Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Art Education Association (USA) in 2013. The community and broader public are involved in Dr. Irwin’s work, for instance through the collaborative production of public art that challenges all of us to see society differently. In her City of Richgate study, Dr. Irwin and collaborators, in conjunction with immigrant families, produced large public installations (bus shelter posters, street banners, photos) that brought the lives of immigrants into the foreground of city dwellers’ daily life and stretching taken-for-granted ideas about immigrant identities. In the words of Dr. John Willinsky, Khosla Family Professor at Stanford University, “This is research that establishes a special sort of ethical relationship with the community, both among those whom it studies – through this process of collaboration – and how the results are shared with this community.” Beyond the local community, Dr. Irwin’s research work has also led her to embrace international scholarly leadership roles. She currently serves a second mandate as president of the International Society for Education through Art, and is a core member of the World Alliance for Arts Education, working in close partnership with the UNESCO to advance art education in developing and developed countries. She also serves as a research advisor for Dadaab (Kenya) Camps of the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees project.
A beloved mentor of graduate students, Dr. Irwin earned the UBC Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2008.