Art Seen Curatorial Welcome

"…the artist tries to oblige the reader or the participant to create what the artist discloses, to become an accomplice in freedom with that artist, an accomplice in releasing possibilities. It is this sort of action that is at the core of aesthetic education." —Maxine Green, 49


With philosopher and educator Maxine Green’s words in mind we launch the first Art Seen within Educational Insights. Our desire is to offer an entryway for artists and learners to engage with aesthetic knowing. We envision Art Seen as an exhibition space that will inspire and excite artists, educators and researchers to move beyond the confines of physical gallery walls to release new possibilities in the presentation of their work.

Artists, educators and researchers Stephanie Springgay and Sylvia Wilson are the first to enter this new space with us. Their art is an invitation to look into the third space, into the space that is the fold. From this location they evoke a questioning of the unseen, the unsightly, the hidden; we are introduced to alternate modes of knowing. In a spontaneous conversation they begin to unfold the world of A/r/tography , which is the outgrowth of many years of working together as a group of graduate students and faculty at UBC.

As you travel through the sounds and images of Art Seen we invite you to extend yourself as an “accomplice in freedom” with the artists.

Barbara Bickel and June Kaminski

Greene, Maxine. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.

Call for future exhibits

Art Seen is an online exhibition space within Educational Insights. We see this latest addition to EI as an opportunity for artists and creative educators working in all media to envision and exhibit their art within a virtual world-wide environment. We invite submissions that are innovative and dynamic. We request that submissions be in digital formats and include a CD with:

* completed art or proposal of intended art
* artist statement
* photo of artist
* artist statement
* artist biography
* accompanying supportive or related paper (optional)

Send submissions and inquiries to Dr. Lynn Fels educational.insights@ubc.ca
Or mailed to:
Educational Insights
Centre for Cross–Faculty Inquiry,
Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia,
2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6T 1Z4.
No mailed materials will be returned unless accompanied with stamped self-addressed envelope.


Barbara Bickel

Barbara has a BFA in Painting from the University of Calgary and a BA in Sociology and Art History from the University of Alberta. She is currently working on her MA in Education at the University of British Columbia where her research focus is Arts-based Inquiry. She has exhibited her art in Canada since 1991. Her art is currently represented by the Fran Willis Gallery in Victoria BC and Kensington Fine Art Gallery in Calgary AB. She co-founded and was curator of The Centre Gallery, a non-profit women’s focused gallery in Calgary AB, and is an independent curator. A long-time collaborative artist, her art can be found in poetry books as well as on book and CD covers.

June Kaminski

June Kaminski is completing her PhD at the University of British Columbia in Curriculum Studies, Technology Education. She has a BSN and MSN from UBC in Nursing. She teaches BSN nursing students at Kwantlen University College - her research interests are focused on The In/Visibility of Nurses in Cyberspace, as well as Cyberart as Psychological Tool. In her spare time she develops curriculum and e-learning courses, writes, designs web sites and graphic art and provides a free space for hundreds of international artists to show their work online at Pegasus Art Gallery. June also designed this Art Seen exhibition space.