Director: Anouk Bélanger (UQAM)
Praxis undertakes analysis of OMEC’s practices by probing their conceptual, methodological, and epistemological concerns. To what extent do perspectives gained through a multitude of related notions and practices (artistic, intellectual, scientific, scientific, intercultural, digital mediation), including in the English-speaking world (cultural outreach, community engagement, arts education, community art) and in French Canadian communities outside Quebec, update our understanding of cultural mediation? How can the renegotiation of relationships between experts and laypeople within cultural mediation practices inspire a decompartmentalization of knowledge-building processes among researchers, practitioners, and participants, particularly in the context of action-research methods, research-creation, intervention research, and evaluative research?
Director: Louis Jacob (UQAM)
Topos investigates the appearance, integration, and effects of cultural mediation projects in particular geographical territories and professional ecosystems, in order to collect observational data in these contexts. How are issues instigated by cultural mediation treated differently in the specific spaces and contexts of intervention in which they take place (central or remote territories, population characteristics, public policies, sustainable development issues)? What types of actions and strategies are characteristic of the different practice environments in which cultural mediation projects are carried out (school, museum, community, artistic, municipal, healthcare)? How do cultural mediators fit into a professional ecosystem with respect to their initial and ongoing training and employment conditions (professionalization, career development, remuneration)?
Topos investigates the appearance, integration, and effects of cultural mediation projects in particular geographical territories and professional ecosystems, in order to collect observational data in these contexts.
Director: Ève Lamoureux (UQAM)
Polis takes a closer look at the socio-political issues related to the plurality of forms of cultural mediation by delving into their political and symbolic dimensions. Certain questions emerge from such articulations. For instance: under what conditions can cultural mediation approaches contribute to a logic of social transformation that aims for social inclusion and cultural diversity (in relation to ethnocultural and immigrant communities, First Peoples and Inuit, deaf and disabled people, neurodiversity, universal accessibility)? What role does aesthetic exploration play in cultural mediation projects, and to what extent might it contribute to new forms of audience development and shared experience? How might cultural mediation practices relate to democratic issues (public art, governance, mobilization) and various forms of citizen engagement and participation (including new and emerging forms of cultural citizenship, cultural rights, and global citizenship education)?
