Abstract

This research examines the experiences of three Lebanese art education graduate students at Concordia University, Lucine, Lara and myself, who moved from different cities in Lebanon to Montreal, Canada. Its aim is to demonstrate how artistic expression and artmaking practices have enabled all three of us to assimilate several multicultural aspects experienced in unfamiliar surroundings. This led us to promoting the use of art practices in exploring and representing socio-cultural integration into contemporary Canada. It additionally presents the understanding of one’s belonging to a community of practice and an informal academic learning environment. This process was developed through individual stories and artmaking workshops. Our stories are written as brief narratives, using natural tones to keep the authenticity of our voices, allowing the reader to dive into our personal experiences. The artmaking workshops then acted as an approach that bridged our stories with arts to visually represent our experiences, while investigating the importance of art as an artistic educational opportunity in promoting the visual aspect of research and representing narratives. A process of informal learning was collaboratively expressed across the participants’ chosen artmaking prompts for the workshops. The choices were based on their personal explorations of moving and adapting to Montreal, Canada. This study is an in-depth inquiry designed to encourage individuals to observe and learn about moving and adapting to a new environment, and in turn inform the public about the progression of those experiences.