Research axes
Three research axes have been defined, focusing on relations between cultural mediation fields and education (accessibility and transmission); creation (collective and collaborative creative processes); and intervention (social inclusion and citizen participation). In the context of the centre, these are interdependent axes, in which actions may intersect with and influence one another.
Through education, intervention, expression, or creation, cultural mediation responds to an individual or community need that requires bringing together elements, individuals, or ideas in a given situation.
1) Cultural mediation and education
The growing integration of cultural mediation within various study programs raises new questions about its effects on student learning and on the course content transmitted by teachers.
2) Cultural mediation and creation
Cultural mediation is thought of by artists and organizations as a field of creation, in which practices that include citizens are highlighted in a form of shared expression. Support for creation (incubation) through the artist residency in the college’s display spaces is envisaged, in its turn, as a space of cultural mediation that can expand interactions between artists and the community.
3) Cultural action, public policies, and territories
Cultural mediation is one of the strategic pathways of cultural action, making it possible to build bridges between cultural fields and different groups, places, and social issues. It is thus integrated into a broader context that it is essential to comprehend through both research activities and guidance: cultural policies, diversity of art practices, socio-ecological transition, social innovation, cultural organization of the territory, and so on.
4) Cultural mediation, digital culture, and open innovation
The question of collective processes of knowledge construction, approaches to participatory design, and new operational models propelled notably by digital culture is a transversal dimension that orients the centre’s actions and axes of research and development.
The centre initiates or guides:
- Research in partnership with researchers, creators, and user groups to apprehend the concrete issues (access to arts, diversity) and better understand the cultural practices of populations
- Research around art practices (residencies, creative processes)
- Assessment research to analyze the benefits of mediation programs and their impacts on social engagement
