PhD Oral Exam - Léah Snider, Art Education

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

This dissertation examines artistic entrepreneurial practices as an educational approach through the analysis of three collaborative projects led by the collective Stories of a Near Future (Montreal, Canada). Grounded in a practitioner-researcher perspective, the study explores how curation, storytelling, and cultural entrepreneurship can serve as methods of transmission, engagement, and narrative-making within situated contexts. The projects Corps Usés (a heritage exhibition in Paspébiac, Gaspésie), De Passage (a sound-based public art intervention along Montreal’s Lachine Canal), and People Make Places (a digital mediation initiative at the PHI Centre, Montreal) are analyzed as critical experiences that reveal tensions between autonomy, temporality, institutions, and pedagogy. The research introduces the concept of repreneuriat to describe a curatorial stance rooted in reclaiming. It also develops the notion of entrepreneurship as art to define a project-making practice in which the act of entrepreneurship becomes an artistic gesture in itself relational, narrative, and collective.

Cette thèse examine les pratiques entrepreneuriales comme une approche artistique éducative, à travers l’analyse de trois projets collaboratifs menés par le collectif Stories of a Near Future (Montréal,Canada). Ancrée dans une posture de praticienne-chercheuse, la recherche explore comment la curation, la narration et l’entrepreneuriat culturel peuvent constituer des méthodes de transmission, d’engagement et de mise en récit dans des contextes situés. Les projets Corps Usés (exposition patrimoniale à Paspébiac, Gaspésie), De Passage (intervention sonore dans l’espace public au canal de Lachine, Montréal) et People Make Places (projet de médiation numérique au Centre PHI, Montréal) sont analysés comme des expériences critiques révélatrices des tensions entre autonomie, temporalité, institution et pédagogie. La recherche propose la notion de repreneuriat pour penser une posture curatoriale fondée sur la reprise. Elle avance également la notion de entrepreneurship as art pour désigner une manière de faire projet où l’acte d’entreprendre devient une pratique artistique à part entière : relationnelle, narrative et collective.