Mélanie Deveault is the Director of Education and Wellness at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Prior to that, she was Head, Education, Community Engagement and Cultural Programs at the McCord Stewart Museum; and the Educational Projects Developer at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, during which time she created ÉducArt (2017), an award-winning digital educational platform. She began her career teaching art history to college students. Deveault has a master’s degree in museology from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a master’s degree in art history from the Université de Montréal. She is committed to approaching art, history and culture from the perspective of social inclusion and to helping create safer spaces for all communities within museum walls.
Sylvie Fortin was a professor in the Dance Department of the University of Quebec in Montreal from 1986 to 2020. As part of funded research projects, she has worked with both dancers and non-dancers with various body issues. Within research teams in hospitals and community organisations, she has used dance and the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education to support children and adults in vulnerable situations (fibromyalgia, depression, eating disorders, neuromuscular diseases, stroke, drug addiction). Her research work has been the subject of more than 100 scientific publications and numerous practical workshops in Europe, South America, Asia, Australasia and Africa. In 2009, she received the University of Auckland Distinguished Visitor Award and in 2019 her research work was selected by UQAM as one of 50 projects that have had a significant impact on Quebec society.
Lourdès Rodriguez del Barrio is a titular professor at the School of Social Work of the Université de Montréal. She is the director of the Action-Research Team in Mental Health and Culture (ÉRASME) and the International Research Alliance University-Community Mental Health and Citizenship (ARUCI-SMC). She is also the Scientific Director of Social Research at CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’île-de-Montréal (NIM). Her research program focuses on the development of alternative practices in mental health and is based on the experience of the people concerned in order to understand suffering, exclusion and strategies for coping, as well as their relationship to politics and citizenship. Her work is coupled with a critical reflection on qualitative methods in action research and in pluralistic and formative evaluation. She led the working group on the quality of mental health services in the community of the Comité de la santé mentale du Québec. The result of her work (Rethinking the Quality of Services in the Community: Changing Perspectives) was nominated for the AGIDD-SMQ Orange Prize.
Marilyn Lajeunesse has worked at the Education and Wellness Department of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts since 1992. She is currently Educational Program Officer for Adults and Community Groups. Among her numerous responsibilities is the development and coordination of the award winning program Sharing the Museum where she works developing programs with diverse groups who are frequently underserved by cultural institutions. Co-creation of these activities is a key factor. Her experience includes the designing of these program in close conjunction with the Museum’s collections and exhibitions as well as facilitating them. Since her early days at the Museum, she has written numerous interpretive documents for exhibitions and the MMFA collection and has developed an expertise in audioguide scripts. She has taught at the primary, secondary, college and university levels. Her educational background includes a Bachelor in Visual Arts from the University of Ottawa, a Bachelor in Art Education from McGill University and a Masters in Educational Psychology from McGill University as well.
Adriana de Oliveira is a professor at the School of Visual and Media Arts at UQAM since 2017. Her field of interest revolves around two axes of development in the field of art education: art appreciation and artistic and educational intervention in community and care environments. She is particularly interested in the contribution of current art appreciation to the development of learners’ critical thinking and social practices of art. Her recent work focuses on the roles of professional artists working with people in marginalized and vulnerable situations. She is a member of the Chaire de recherche pour le développement de pratiques innovantes en art de l’Université du Québec à Montréal and of the ArtEspaceSocial research group.
Ève Lamoureux is a professor in the Department of Art History at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). Her research focuses on art and politics, particularly on engaged art, community arts and cultural mediation. She is a member of the Centre de recherche Cultures – Arts – Sociétés (CELAT), the Observatoire des médiations culturelles (OMEC) and the ArtEspaceSocial research group. She has recently co-edited the following books: with Francine Saillant, Noémie Maignien and Fanny H.-Lévy, Médiation culturelle, musées, publics diversifiés. Guide pour une expérience inclusive (Écomusée du fier monde, 2021); with Julie Paquette and Emmanuelle Sirois, Arts. Entre libertés et scandales. Études de cas (Nota Bene, 2020), with Francine Saillant, InterReconnaissance. La mémoire des droits dans le milieu communautaire au Québec (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2018); with Magali Uhl, Le vivre-ensemble à l’épreuve des pratiques culturelles et artistiques contemporaines (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2018), and with Nathalie Casemajor, Marcelle Dubé, Jean-Marie Lafortune, Expériences critiques de la médiation culturelle (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2017).
Mona Trudel is a professor at UQAM’s School of Visual and Media Arts since 1999 and holds the UQAM Research Chair for the Development of Innovative Practices in Art, Culture, and Well-being. She simultaneously pursues two fields of research: artistic and pedagogical practices with a social purpose in the community with vulnerable and marginalized people and the integration of the intercultural and inclusive dimension in the visual arts classroom. Her interest in the transformative aspects of art echoes her university teaching practice at all levels. She is currently co-authoring a follow-up book to the research La contribution de l’art au rétablissement et à l’inclusion sociale de personnes marginalisées (SSHRC-2016-2019) involving women researchers in the arts, urban psychiatry and addiction medicine. She is a member of the research group ArtEspaceSocial.
