​Mehdia Hassan with Zarina Kayoumi, Yousuf Ahmed, Muneer, G.S., and Rabaya Khan (2018)

Title: Showing Artful Inquiry: Fostering Mental Wellbeing in St. James Town Area Youth:
​Explorations of Community Connectedness Through Painting Activities
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Picture
Community Visual Arts Exhibition of completed paintings at the 2018 St. James Town Festival
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ABSTRACT
The downtown Toronto community of St. James Town, one of Canada’s most densely-populated neighbourhoods (St. James Town Community Corner, 2019), is incredibly diverse, both culturally and linguistically. With this notion also comes multiple community challenges; many young people from visible minority groups often face social exclusion, as well as social and economic barriers that limit their access to arts programming in St. James Town. Community participation in visual arts activities promote the social inclusion of youth facing systemic social and health inequities (Robson & Ashbourne, 2016), while increasing feelings of artistic achievement and self-awareness (Victor et al., 2016; Argyle & Bolton, 2005).
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This research project uses the innovative and interdisciplinary Parallaxic Praxis model (Sameshima et al., 2019) to collaboratively explore how arts-integrated inquiry can foster mental wellbeing in five racialized St. James Town youth who experienced forms of marginalization. Feelings of belonging and self-esteem were two indicators of mental wellbeing explored through the interviews, paintings, and artist statements. The participants and researcher created original paintings during art-making sessions, responding to the question: “What is your favourite part of living in the St. James Town community?” Both the participants and researcher took part in the Catechization Process, using palimpsest, poiesis, and aporia to guide analyses and reflections (Sameshima et al., 2019). The completed paintings were showcased in a visual arts exhibition during the 2018 St. James Town Festival. The project findings reveal expressions of community connectedness and feelings of belonging in the youth’s experiences of living in St. James Town, in relation to their meaning-making around nature, revitalization, diversity, and unity. Notions of self-esteem were less supported in the data; therefore, more exploration of self-esteem is needed. While further Canadian research is needed, the unique insights and reflections uncovered from project findings suggest increased potential for the positive impacts of community-based visual arts programming on feelings of belonging.
 
ARTIST
Mehdia Hassan is a youth arts educator, visual artist, and a graduate of Lakehead University’s Master of Arts in Social Justice Studies. Her interdisciplinary research interests include using visual-arts-integrated methods of inquiry within community-based health research to critically examine social and health inequities, as well as the lived experiences of at-risk youth. Mehdia is also interested in increasing knowledge mobilization between academic and public communities through the visual arts. The co-researchers in this project are youth residing in St. James Town who were active participants in the research and art production. Mehdia has co-authored an article about her Toronto neighbourhood of St. James Town, published in the academic journal Health Tomorrow.