Arts-based Methods for Transformative Engagement: A toolkit

This open access toolkit offers a collection of almost 30 methods, practical examples, workshop outlines and tips for creative facilitation, as well as resources and relevant academic references. The ideas and methods collected in this toolkit are intended to support new ways of thinking and doing in our work as change agents towards regenerative societies. Compiled by a research team collaborating through the SUSPLACE Innovative Training Network, it is the result of our collective research and experimentation with creative and arts-based methods of engagement.

To break free of habituated ways of thinking and perceiving, a field of research addressing the 'inner-dimensions of sustainability' argues that deep transformation requires 'change from the inside out.' This entails engaging with emotions, changing cultural narratives and worldviews, and stimulating specific mindset shifts conducive to socio-ecological innovation. This toolkit invites participants to disrupt default anthropocentric worldviews and draw more deeply from their own values, intentions, and an expanded sense of ecological self. Theoretically, it draws from a variety of approaches, including Metaphorical Thinking, Aesthetic Practices, Arts Based Environmental Education, Care for Place, and Appreciative Inquiry. Theory U is used as an organizing framework.

These methods are just a starting point and can inform the design of workshops, events, co-production strategies, and the development of sustainability initiatives. Used alone or in concert, they invite improvisation and can be used by facilitators of all experience levels, across various fields.

Kelli Rose Pearson is focused on the topics of leadership, culture shifts, and communication for sustainability. Currently based at the Rural Sociology Department at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, she is researching the role of imaginative leadership in supporting the transformative capacity of local leaders. Her professional experience includes nearly a decade the founder and owner of a successful cafe and community arts hub in Savannah, Georgia (The Sentient Bean) and another decade as a consultant and sustainability expert with the Economic Transformations Group, a cluster-based international economic development consultancy. MSc in Environmental Governance from the University of Freiburg (Germany); BA in comparative Religion from Carleton College (USA); Certificate in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Oregon (USA); Certificate in Ecological Design from the Ecosa Institute in Prescott, Arizona (USA).