This book examines an art studio as a way of thinking and learning through the lens of a cross-Canada journey into artists’ studios. Through examining studio visits and interviews with over 100 painters, and through the theoretical lens of new materialism, the studio is presented as a unique place of learning.



In the first section, ‘Studio as Place,’ the journey into artists’ studios is discussed as a form of subjective mapping. A studio is a part of an active and interconnected ecosystem and through artmaking the studio has the capacity to transport us elsewhere. In the second section, ‘Studio as Process,’ studio practice is discussed as emergent, performative, generative and in an ongoing state of ‘not knowing.’ The third section, ‘Studio as Material Thinking’ examines studio practice as affective, material and messy. The final section ‘Studio as Dialogue with the World,’ examines studio processes as relational, imaginative and responsive to our ongoing experiences.



To focus on possibilities and potentials rather than conclusions, and generativity rather than closure, the studio is presented through a series of propositions, drawn from ways the artists described their process. These propositions are speculative and highlight the endless possibilities and entanglements of making within the ever-changing ecology of the studio.

Lines of Inquiry: Multi-disciplinary Methodologies in Drawing and Education is a collection of essays written by researchers, scholars, and artists from nine countries around the world.



The multi-disciplinary contributors include teachers, artists, architects, psychotherapists, museum educators and curators who bring their distinct positions and experiences of using drawing in collaboration with others, in classrooms, in the community, in private practice, and as researchers interpreting and analyzing the experiences of others.The collection is organized in a way that takes the reader through a journey of what drawing is and can be; whether that is through a mapping of one’s daily route, a marking of territory, an expression of an experience, a problem-solving equation of arrows and lines, a comic, or a concept of imagined lines that demarcate power. Some contributions speak to the embodiment that drawing allows, some to learning and knowledge construction, and some to an age-old way of communicating.



The international roster of contributors provides suggestions for developing new ways of knowing, for developing empathy toward things that may lie outside our own experiences, and for seeing alternative perspectives through drawing.

Over the past decade, Tiny Housing has become something of a viral sensation in the US. From Instagrammable enclaves for young professionals to vast municipality-supported schemes seeking to address homelessness, tiny house sites are proliferating across the country.



This book takes a look at life inside the ‘Tiny House Nation’, shining an intimate light on a phenomenon widely celebrated in the mainstream media. The book presents textured narrative accounts from and striking images of Tiny Home residents, their homes and communities, while analysing the broader socio-economic structures shaping their lives. In so doing, it paints a compelling and complex picture of a trend at the crossroads of several key social, cultural and economic shifts, at a pivotal moment for America’s housing future.

Fundamentally, this is a book about paradoxes. The paradox of tiny housing offering freedom from the constraints of capitalism, whilst at the same time remaining embedded within capitalist systems. The paradox of those who ‘go tiny’ both choosing an alternative lifestyle, and those who are pushed into tiny housing as a consequence of limited choice. The paradox of Austin, Texas, as both a countercultural enclave and hyper-capitalist tech haven. And the paradox of tiny house ethoses in Austin, as both centring community and shared assets, and individualist libertarianism. These paradoxes do not necessarily sit in opposition to one another, but are all bound up in the complexity of what tiny housing has to offer as an alternative way of living.

Despite its unattainability for all but the most privileged, the American Dream - the home-owning society, the suburban bliss, the white picket fence - remains emblematic of the residential Good Life. But in the decades since the turn of the millennium the dream has been shrunk down, expectations of a decent home literally reduced. Whilst for some this has led to forms of freedom and fulfilment, it has also contributed to the normalisation of cities so outrageously expensive that all people can afford are miniature homes on the urban periphery. As this book shows, both impacts of tiny housing are equally true, and one does not cancel out the other. Tiny housing embodies an important societal crossroads. In some respects, it offers an alternative to the prevailing housing status quo. In others, it demonstrates what options have already been taken away from us.

from the Introduction



‘In the rest of this book, we’ll lead you through our exploration of tiny housing in Texas. We’ll start, in the next chapter, by introducing some of the places and people we encountered on our travels to set the scene. Then, the ‘pathways’ chapter examines the various conditions and journeys through which people end up living tiny. As you’ll see, our attempt to produce a diagram of pathways to tiny living escalated into the production of a fully blown board game. We describe this diagrammatic board game to show the complex and nuanced personal and structural circumstances that lead people into tiny housing. From there, we go into three empirical chapters, focusing on economies of tiny living, the materiality of tiny housing as domestic spaces, and community culture. We then draw the book to a close, and speculate about what tiny housing means for the future of domestic life, especially in relation to the American Dream.



‘Throughout the book our descriptions are accompanied by photographs taken by Cian Oba-Smith, who accompanied us on our first trip to Texas in 2022. The hype around tiny housing is undoubtedly driven, in large part, by the aesthetic cultures surrounding it. Tiny homes are the picturesque, boutique, upmarket cousin of mobile homes and trailers. They are distinguished from these other types of small housing, as we’ll argue in this book, specifically by their aesthetics. Anyone who ventures into the world of tiny housing for more than five minutes will see how thick this aesthetic culture is. From beautifully curated Instagram pages, to countless coffee table books, to Etsy shops dedicated to crafted tiny house merchandise, a key part of living tiny is enjoying and embracing its aesthetics. By working with Cian we were able to focus (literally) on these aesthetic dimensions of tiny housing. However, we were also able to capture some of what’s not presented in promotional tiny house materials; the constraints, the challenges and the complexities that come along with the joy and the freedom. We’re positioning this book as something of a disrupted coffee table book. On an initial flick through it might not look too different to the photography books that valorise tiny living, but you’ll already know, if you’ve read this far, that our approach is more nuanced. Our attempt has been to expose the ‘real’ Tiny House Nation. Not to attack it, not to deny its beneficial impacts for a huge number of people, but to inject some nuance into the debate so that we can take forward the positives of tiny living without normalising the negatives.’

This chapter explores an artist in residence engagement with a group of children in an inner city school as part of International children's day supported by The Ark (a cultural centre for children in Dublin). It applies a posthuman theoretical lens as a tool for reflecting on the event and work created.

Literacy is a tool for personal empowerment and key to discovering and reaching one's potential in life. Children's experiences of literacy in school are important factors in their literacy journey, as affordances of classrooms can constrain or propel their development forward. Teachers and schools play a key role in infusing classrooms with purpose and passion and engaging children as readers, writers and thinkers from the outset. This is more likely to occur when a rich conceptualisation of literacy is enacted which balances attention to the creative, emotional, and aesthetic dimensions of literacy as well as cognitive skills. This chapter draws on many lines of literacy scholarship and examples from the Write to Read research-practice partnership in low socio-economic schools to illuminate how the research can be brought to life to create conditions for literacy to thrive.

This essay will explore a genealogy of approaches to arts education from a philosophical perspective. Jean-Francois Lyotard has described the principle of postmodern life and thought as an ‘incredulity to meta-narratives’ (Lyotard 1986). Employing a Freirean (Freire 1996) philosophical framework, the analysis will also connect to a vision for education and the arts, what Freire called a ‘problem-posing’ pedagogy which is also a version of a postmodern pedagogy (Irwin 2020).

Students from thirty of two hundred and twenty-four post-primary schools participating in the Junior Certificate School Programme (JCSP) have a unique opportunity to collaborate with professional school librarians. With emphasis on literacy, the JCSP library experience presents a window into a future of Irish education that is more enjoyable, democratic, and relevant. Through arts-informed activities focusing on creating positive relationships, JCSP librarians as ‘artistes sans frontiers’ help enrich the education experience of disadvantaged learners. Furthermore, librarians, through attention to agency and wellbeing, open a new type of education space addressing disengagement and a form of epistemological loneliness experienced by many post-primary students. The story of the JCSP librarians is brought to light in socio-historical contexts with examples of student/librarian artistic encounters interpreted through a concept of education as a natural, lifelong creative process of developing positive relationships individually and collectively, with ourselves, others, and the humanly constructed and natural environment.

The Teacher Artist Partnership (TAP) programme in Ireland advances creative partnership between teachers, creative practitioners, and students, emphasising equality, creativity, and reflective practice in collaborative professional development. Established in 2014 under the Arts in Education Charter and continuing under the Creative Youth Plan 2017-2027, TAP integrates creative partnerships in education. This chapter traces TAP's evolution as a professional development model from international and national perspectives, identifying its successes and challenges. The process-focused, adaptable nature of TAP training and residencies is highlighted, emphasising the benefits of mutual learning and ongoing adaptation to new research and insights. Themes such as personal histories, professional identities, and stereotypes are examined, while stressing the importance of articulating the breadth and depth of learning for artists, teachers, and children. Ultimately, the core values essential to effective partnership are explored, positioning TAP as a continually evolving model for arts education and growth in learning.

This chapter presents findings from a research collaboration (2016-2021) when the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin and the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) collaborated on ‘the Freud Project’ with Professional Master of Education students as part of their museum module. The aim of the research was to evaluate how collaborative engagement between the School of Education in NCAD and the Engagement and Learning Department in IMMA impacted on student teachers' approach to teaching in post-primary schools. IMMA exhibited a significant five-year loan of 52 works by realist painter, Lucian Freud, in a new, dedicated Freud Centre in the museum grounds.

Student-teacher participants were surveyed on their experience of IMMA and the follow-up engagement with their studio-based components, visual arts in the classroom (VAC) work- shops in NCAD, to gauge how such a collaboration might influence their teaching.

My chapter describes my practice as a creative writer visiting schools and working with young people on writing projects. It includes a story written jointly by a group of 14-year-old girls in a an inner-city school in Dublin.