Walking with Rural Research

This sensory ethnographic research study used a walking methodology to explore the potential of an asset-based approach to arts development. Inspired by socially engaged artists who incorporate walking as their practice, this study explored a rural arts community by walking with research participants to gain a sense of their history, consider past and future artistic developments, as well as map/learn about the physical environment through stories, conversations, and sensory-based experiences. Many arts administrators utilize a needs-based approach to identify community deficits and assets through surveys, formal interviews and focus groups, thus this research aimed to devise a different approach. This research theorized walking as an ecological inquiry and explored the embodied and entangled experiences that emerged, with the goal of co-creating knowledge from the perspective of community members, to inform and expand arts administration approaches to community arts initiatives and development. Using an ecological and mapping analytical framework, the findings describe and trace the emergence of boundary objects that were entangled with the community members stories and memories that highlighted the relational aspects of the town, community, and art. The ecological and mapping analysis directly related to my walking method because all are multilayered, multisensory, and embodied ways of learning and relaying information about a place. To conclude this research, I outline an arts administration toolbox with five distinct steps and processes to follow when utilizing this walking method within the fields of arts administration and art education.